The torturous way theists must rationalize death.

[Locut0s]

Theists often try to convert non believers with the laughable fear of hell. What I have difficulty understanding is how they can't see the torturous mind games they have to play with themselves in order to be comfortable with their own belief in their afterlife. There are so many uncomfortable layers to it all that the belief that you simply cease to BE after death seems to easily be the easier fear to face. Obviously religion plays off our most primal fears, that of death and suffering. So they offer up in response the grandest of all possible counter offers, eternal life. And of course with that "gift" has come hundreds of generations of moral corruption, and the arbiters of that gift here on earth (persists, fathers etc) have long been prone to the worst moral abuses because of the positions of absolute power, wholly unearned, we give them. But it's the mental contortions one must have to go through to believe in the type of afterlife that most religions do, that boggles my mind.

For one. You have to sell yourself on the concept of heaven. Whatever the afterlife will be, it by definition, isn't this. And almost all religions posit an eternity of "it". Be it heaven or hell. Ok. Most religions are purposefully vague about their descriptions of heaven, but quite explicit about their descriptions of hell. Hell has to be painted particularly vividly badly in order to scare the "believer" sufficiently so that they don't ask too many questions, don't stray outside the marked boundaries. Heaven can be left up to the individual, save that you will be with your dead loved ones forever. But let's pick this apart a bit. What would it rationally mean to almost anyone, after living 70 or 80 years of a concrete corporeal existence, to suddenly find themselves faced with an ETERNITY of some alien other? I don't care if you promise that I will meet dead loved ones. That to me is a very vivid hell, no mater how much you want to paint it as a heaven. Then there is the continual mental angst a believer must constantly go through to convince themselves that they are going to heaven and not hell. After all "god" always gets the final say in the mater and we all know how capricious gods of almost every religion are. The reason of course is because man had to mold their god to fit nature, which is undoubtedly filled with both great wonders and great horrors, but thankfully it's quite randomly so. It's only with the injecting of a conscious mover into the picture that it becomes actively cruel. And if you believe in this petty, vindictive, abusive god ( theists would argue loving but then so would many an abused argue of their abuser), how do you KNOW that they are going to send you to your heaven, no matter how "good" you have been?

By contrast the idea that I simply cease being, that there is very literally NOTHING after death may be sad, but it's an end that is easily accepted and one that brings me much peace and comfort by comparison.

[SCantiGOP]

1. I read Bertrand Russell in High School

I saw an interview with him shortly before his death in 1970.
He was asked what he would do, as a lifelong non-believer, if he found himself face to face with god at the moment of his death. His answer (paraphrased): “I would say ‘I used the mind you gave me to the best of my ability and was certain you didn’t exist, but I am sure glad I was wrong.’ And then I would hope the creator of the universe had a sense of humor.”

I repeated this to a particularly obnoxious theist once and was sternly told that “God does not appreciate humor.”

On edit:I do agree with your well-reasoned post. When asked if I don’t “fear” death, my answer is that I don’t relish it but it is no more to be feared than going to sleep. The only difference is the duration of unconsciousness and lack of awareness of one’s existence.

[Susan Calvin]

4. Me too!

(How many of us are there? Few, I imagine.)

Had not seen this quote. Love it!

[BigmanPigman]

2. Whenever I tell one of them that I don't believe in Hell

or Heaven and I really to don't care if I live or not and it hasn't been a picnic so far they are speechless. With climate change, etc the prospect of a long life is not something I would choose. Besides, my family lives a really long time, on both sides, and they always said they wanted to live to be 100 (and some did). However when they got sicker and in more pain they changed their tune pretty damn fast.

[Eko]

3. As a athiest I dont find it sad at all.

I find it amazing that I get to be a part of this and am more thankful than I can ever express.

[Permanut]

5. Beautiful, thanks for posting! n/t

[Mr.Bill]

6. What I tell the believers

is not anyone, not you, not me, not the pope, not Billy Graham, etc. really knows what happens after death.

The only difference between me and them, the believer, is that I am content in my lack of this knowledge, and they feel compelled to find an answer. They won't really find that answer, but they will feel better when some one gives them an answer they can believe in.

It's all really harmless as long as they don't force this false belief on me. I am married to a non practicing Catholic, and this is how we get along.

[Freelancer]

7. It's all projections of what we know, only magnified, IMO

It's human nature to envision everything beyond the horizon as similar to what we know, only much bigger. Fathers, elders, or kings once held people's lives in their hands and, depending on their nature, might deal with disobedience with great cruelty (still that way in places). Take that, project it onto the universe, and you have gods.

There was a period when lowly travelers who found themselves at the gates of a foreign city had to make a case for their admittance, or prove a relationship in order to enter. Failure to make the cut meant languishing in the wilderness, or being set-upon as an enemy. Expand and project, and you have the pearly gates and hell.

Now the projection we have is a kind of ultimate surveillance, where God's cameras are recording everything we do, think and feel for some kind of final job review. It's just some messed-up bullshit spun out by the hippocampus.

Welcome to Earth, kid. Here's your shovel.