If I knew I had a passport to a wonderful place and other people were saying it didn't exist, I would be serene and just let them babble. Their words would mean nothing to me and I would just pity them slightly if I bothered my head with them at all. That's not how most theists react though, which makes me think that there's a level at which they don't really believe their own shtick.

If death is so terrifying to so many people then what's wrong with me if I don't fear it at all? I have no complaints from the billions of years I didn't exist before I was born and I'm not aware of anyone whose died ever complaining about being dead either so how bad can it be?

To be fair, most religious people are indoctrinated at a young age by authority figures, including but not limited to their parents. Distrust of others with different beliefs (or lack of beliefs) has a tribal component, while fear of death undoubtedly contributes significantly. You combine that with peer approval of the culture, and atheists become objects of ridicule and contempt. Good article.

There is also the fact that they trive on persecution. And its not too difficult to arouse feelings of persecution in theists. They see atheists as the enemy and they don't like us saying that there is no afterlife.

The tale of an afterlife is a good tool to prevent people from seeking to improve their current condition.

Of course, why else would we be so hated (or rather feared). My daughter, a Christian, questioned me about the time I was out after the accident. I told her it was like I died, nadda, no dreams or anything. I could sense she was uncomfortable with that.

I honestly believe that all belief is fueled by fear of death.

I've always felt that it was the afterlife that kept believers in the pew. Those of us who don't need it, for psychological reasons, aren't willing to tolerate the cognitive dissonance of religious dogma. We don't see that there's anything in it for us.

i think it's much simpler than that. i think religionists sometimes fear atheists because atheists, to a religionist, are THEM, and religionists, to a religionist, are US.

g

When I am asked about this I always go back this.
So you have a book that extols virtue and promises you a paradise after you if you are good, or a fiery pit if you are bad right.

But.. Your book also condones slavery, murder, killing gays, treating women as property, genocide and intolerance.

As an atheist ( and i always put that word in ) I feel that it is your duty to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, not through fear of a fiery pit or some promise of paradise that you can't even prove.

Which do you think is more honest? and if you are using your book as a moral compass I suggest you need a new moral compass.

Surprisingly 99.9% of the time they just walk away.

Well atheists just act like a spoiler alert.

I don't buy it. Even the most religious are afraid of death because bottom line they just aren't completely sure about their beliefs. I think they just hate the thought of how many what-could-have-been restful Sunday mornings they wasted if they figure out God really doesn't exist.

Glad to be of service.

We do what we can.

Their is a lot of hyperbole in this article but the quoted part is true, fear of death leads believers to resent atheists.

The believer spends their whole life sitting in 'Heaven's waiting room', waiting for the 'real life' - the eternity of heaven - to start. Yet what they do in the waiting room dictates whether they get through the door into heaven at all.

In effect they're looking around and thinking 'Well - this is crap, but I need to be a good girl/boy for the next fifty years or the doorman won't let me into the main event. And how must I be a good girl/boy? Firstly I must keep telling the doorman how awesome he is, and how much I really love him - even though the bastard keeps threatening me with fire and brimstone. Secondly I must try and hazard a guess about what people the doorman dislikes - atheists, homosexuals, those damn worshippers of other religions, blasphemers and the like - and be REALLY nasty to them.'

There was a case where the believer ended up killing his atheist friend after an argument over the existence of god. I suppose the believer just could not take the reality. Something about it sparked his anger.

I've heard people say to me "wouldn't it be so nice if there really was a god?" Why would it be "nice?" Do you need that much supervision? You are comforted that there really is an invisible man in the sky. He guides you and is going to send you somewhere. He watches you take a crap or have sex. You make up stories about things he gave you. Hey, you need to outgrow this.

That’s actually quite insightful. I believe that on the part of Christians when confronted by atheists some thinking like that may well be going on. But I’d make a distinction with other religions, not all believers are created equal.

I believe this is at least partially true. I did an experiment once where I told people I was atheist but then after they started doing the death cult thing said I believed in reincarnation, and it did seem to statistically ease up their fervency. So yeah, reassuring them that "life might still go on" seems to take the edge off them, to a degree, indicating that fear of non-existence fuels at least some of their issue.

For the . 1 that stays I then move onto Cosmology, their god is supposed to be perfect a perfect engineer, designer and is meant to know everything and have a plan.

So firstly if he has a plan that he won't change - why pray?
Secondly if he is meant to be a perfect engineer what about the design faults which lead to a blind spot in the human eye where the optic nerve passes through the retina? Why does the larangeal nerve pass down the body loop around and then travel all the way back to the voice box - surely it should go from the brain immediately to the voice box.

Then if they are still there we get to.
Scientists have already proven that the big bang happened there is no question of that they have mapped the BCMR ( background cosmic microwave radiation ) and proved that the event happened.

Sometimes they try and argue that god created the big bang at this point and the next bit just blows their minds

O.K So you think that god is responsible for the big bang despite the fact that I have pointed out the floors in his "perfect design", well here we go scientists have also recently discovered a particle present in the BCMR which shows that our universe is not the first iteration and is the result of the destruction of at least one universe before it and this amount could be far greater. So are you telling me that your perfect creator had to create and destroy many universes before he got to us and we are just that special? Surely if he was that perfect he would have gotten it right in the first place.

• I have never had one last past "this amount could be greater" *

For atheists death is not covered by pretty euphemisms, or wishful fantasy. It is what it is, a return to non-consciousness. Not many people can handle their coffee black and unsweetened!

A lot of the xtians I know seem perfectly at ease with being able to determine who's going to heaven and who's going to hell, but the bluster is all to easy to spot and turn on them. From time to time, I've taken to asking what they need a god for when they can make such a determination, themselves.

Christians put down the jellyfish as an ugly creasure in the Bible. They speak about the Dolphins as the beautiful intelligent animal.

Because Jellyfish is an immortal animal of 650 million years old. Thousands times older than God's creation of life, light and earth. Adam and Eve, then POOOF! e verything else was imagine and designed by young Creationism.

If it weren’t for the fear of death and the desire for a afterlife I doubt there would be very many religions. Yes it’s unfortunate that the religous can’t understand why you would be a moral person and not believe in god. That’s the primary reason I usually keep my atheism to myself and don’t generally confront the religous about their idiotic religous dogma.

My favorite quote comes from Robert Ingersoll from his oration "At a child's grave" -
"They who stand with breaking hearts around this little grave need have no fear. The largest and the nobler faith in all that is, and is to be, tells us that death, even at its worst, is only perfect rest. We know that through the common wants of life, the needs and duties of each hour, their grief will lessen day by day until at last these graves will be to them a place of rest and peace — almost of joy. There is for them this consolation: The dead do not suffer. If they live again their lives will surely be as good as ours. We have no fear; we are all children of the same mother and the same fate awaits us all. We, too, have our religion, and it is this: “Help for the living, hope for the dead.”"

The promise of immortality is fraudulent and arrogant. For believers to accept this statement the must address the fact that they have 'been had' and through that could loose their family and community. So, the doubters tend to silently go on with religion. When the pretending becomes burdensome, fear sets in and they begin to reach out secretly. Loosing the fear of god, seems to be akin to loosing immortality. There is so much more than faith to replace what it has ingrained, often since birth. Humanist groups are jam packed with such people and are received with open arms and understanding. There are no ends to our questions as there are with the god mystery. Deep discoveries of ourselves based in facts, reason and science is far more wonderous and beautiful, than any fantasies we can hold. It's so nice not to wonder about what happens after we die. Our disintegration makes living it's own reward in the here and now.