Every over-anxious and paranoid person I know Is a strong or moderately-strong Christian. Another reason I'm an atheist. What's the point? If I am going to "believe" yet think the sky is falling ... I don't get it. You either have faith or not.

Considering Conservatives have an entire tv network dedicated to making people fearful, there is obviously some truth.

I fear, but my fears are different. I don't worry about the guy from Mexico who came here undocumented, I fear that guy being treated less than human. I don't fear my gun being taken, nor do I fear that someone is about to come in with an AK 47, but I fear easy access to guns make it more likely for massacres to happen again and again. I don't fear the price of gas, I fear my grandchildren won't have clean air and water. I don't fear a gay man trying to recruit someone, but I fear people being discriminated against.

Suppose it depends on how efficiently we have been programmed into religion. The day I spoke outlook the words, "I really do not think there is such a thing as God......fear lifted and I have been so much happier.

We’re more accepting of the truth, thus likely more accepting of other aspects of life as well. There may be a ‘more conservative’ reaction to immediate stimulation, if attributable to fear, but reason eventually kicks in ‘for us,’ we calm, and move ahead..

So the conservatives have more gray matter in their amygdala, or more activity? ...they can’t have bigger brains … unless they’re swollen with fear.. Would the fear of anything not force everyone to immediately reassess their assumptions in a desperate attempt to find an answer that may have been previously ignored..? That’s a shift I can envision..

In the last US presidential election there was a marked difference between the two parties. The Democrats were upbeat and positive … where the Republicans were fear mongering beyond anything I’d previously witnessed. The intentions were obvious; the Dems wanted to portray a progressive continuity; the Repubs were motivating their minions with fear. In the end, fear appears the stronger motivator, as perhaps the ‘liberal minded’ Dem’s ignored the ramifications of the current president and fell into a complacent denial that such a thing could ever happen..

Atheist, I occasionally have tinges of fear over my mortality, but deal with it from within, most would never know. I think ‘we’ incorporate the reality of such fears into our behavior so flawlessly we appear to be ‘carefree,’ or less fearful. I view the religious in a constant state of denial.. perhaps exercising their oversized amygdalas They need that weekly reassurance of immortality and immersion within their herd … all we need is this

No force in this universe will make me less liberal. I'll hide it if I have to - we do have conservative agnostics here. I'll tone it down since this is an agnostic website- not a liberal website.

I think a lack of fear is sort of a prerequisite for atheism because people have to be brave when confronting the fact that everlasting existence isn't true. Otherwise, they won't turn away from the religion. People also have to have a lack of fear to be liberal because change is scary and so is thinking outside the box when society discourages it. So I think the lack of fear allows people to develop both atheistic and liberal thought processes. The two go hand and hand.

As an Athiest, I cannot be threatened with loss of an eternal afterlife, so yes I am less fearful.

I've always considered a purely classic conservative mindset, typically religious, to be completely hieratical with a base "fear of God". I think it is fair to say this mindset comes from indoctrination and socially imposed conformity. Fundamentally. being conservative means resisting change and for much of history, conservatives have been very successful. Liberalism is a recent development and it remains to be seen if this philosophy will persist. Conservatives are clever in terms of single-minded purpose. Their plans to suppress liberal freedom unfold over the course of years, e.g., Reagan cancels the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, Rush Limbaugh starts programing in 1988, Fox New is created 1996. And it is only getting worse to include foreign intervention in elections by means of spending fear and distrust over social media. IMO it is a flexible nearly subconscious programed mass conspiracy of all who profit from things remaining as they are. For example - the military industrial complex - not exactly liberal, but it has adapted means to serve the same ends, the ends being obscene profit for the shadowy billionaires that manipulate the beast into wars that never end. Long ago, armies would pillage the enemy, now they see to it everyone is pillaged all the time, especially the citizens of the US to the tune of a $21T debt - all from war I posit. They run the intelligence that justifies the wars, they run the military that expends blood and treasury at horrific rates, and they run the rebuilding after the war if there is an end. Very profitable - industry that creates things that are meant to be destroyed. And it all fits nicely into the Fear of God category. It's the way things are and shall be forever - nothing can change. Absolute absurdity! In reality, the only thing that is constant is change. Conservatives are completely unnatural and accessories to evil. But don't get me started.

Know NO fear.

I think I'm just as fearful. But I handle things more realistically.

I don’t ever feel the fear thing. Not after the death of my son. I don’t remember much about my emotions from the beforetime. As a teen, I’d ride with friends when we were drunk or tripping, or drive myself. I’d climb abandoned fire towers in the forests around here, I’d ride around town with bags of weed without constantly obeying traffic laws. I’ve done many things that fear hasn’t prevented. But maybe I was just comfortable in those situations but fearful of other things. Like I said, I don’t remember. The last 2.5 years, I don’t feel much at all. I’m not worried about my mortality. Maybe I never was. I’ve always dug this quote

‘Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!’

• Hunter S. Thompson

It has made me more certain and, yes, less fearful. One isn't burdened with the threat of a "Hell" and one can learn to appreciate more of what one has with knowing there is no more (I see the immortality thing as appealing to our basic instinct of greed).

”Several studies have shown that when social scientists get liberal-leaning experiment subjects to think about their own deaths or make them feel threatened, some left-wingers adopt more conservative values.” I think the the words liberal leaning skews the study. The election of Bush was done through chicanery. He lost the popular vote. Also, the character of Al Gore had a lot to do with that election. I am also curious about the study I sent about the National Geographic study about good and evil and the brain scans of the newborn and those later in life and how nurture shaped parts of the brain. [archive.nationalgeographic.com]

This link to the app “WeCroak” seems like it would make people more fearful but it actually makes them more focused. ”WeCroak interrupts with the sobering reminder that it is not just my attention these other apps are consuming, but chunks of my life. I’ve come to embrace WeCroak as the anti-app.” It seems the reality of death actually can make some people more peaceful.
[theatlantic.com]

No

It makes sense to me. The whole conservative...economy? Is based on fear. Buy the gun, get the extended warranty, avoid that neighborhood, sex is bad, etc. In Wichita there's a fairly large number of homeless people. I'll walk around downtown with my camera alone and I've had conservative (concealed carry, gun toting) friends ask me if I'm concerned for my safety. It never crosses my mind. I think a drunk conservative redneck at a bar poses more of a threat but I just don't sweat that either. My biases/experience may be showing, I'm a relatively big guy but I don't think it would matter. And as far as being less afraid post atheism that seems like a given. There's a whole raft of superstitions that just die once you embrace an evidence based reality. I'd argue it makes some aspects more fun. When you understand there's no such thing as thought crime you can let your imagination run free.

My sample size for this observation is very small but I can relate a story of a young man I helped escape from the darkness of superstition religion into the light of evidence based reason. When I first met him at the YMCA, (my theist hunting ground) He originally stood on the sidelines while I debated theists. Eventually he started asking me questions. He told me he was raised a Catholic and every night he would have trouble going to sleep and often awake in the middle of the night. The thing that was keeping him from sleeping was fear of having god not like him and burning him in hell forever. He noted this was a serious condition that was preventing him from living a healthy life. For roughly two months (averaging an hour a day) we discussed his religion (for the most part I dissected it) and I introduced him to a long list of reasons to question the existence of his god. Near the end of his de-conversion he was still convinced that priests were evidence of his god as they were ordained by god and what a priests says is gods word and therefore god exists. When I introduced him to the Youtube work of Edward Tarte, an X Catholic priest that is now an outspoken atheist. The young man at the YMCA managed to escape his indoctrination and step into the world of rational thinkers. He has thanked me many times for helping him because, according to him he now No longer fears burning in hell forever No longer fears others that are not Catholic Has found a greater appreciation for the diversity of people outside his church (he was taught to fear and hate gays, atheists etc. and now sleeps well. I am guessing that if you spend hours every day worrying about burning in hell forever, and fearing anyone that is not a Catholic, the region of the brain, being more active, will increase in synaptic density.

As far as I know, conservatives in general are quite religious. It fits best to their way of thinking in true, not-true thinking, or even not because they know the world around them. They want that that world stays the same so that they are not forced to think about the things they already know are true.
Maybe it's fear of what they might discover. People that have started thinking, by education or for whatever reasons, think things over. First of all political, they are open for information where conservatives are not. For the US it is more likely for them to feel more attracted to the democratic way of thinking because that is way more based on arguments. This group is also more likely to leave their church and religion. I suppose that as soon one starts exploring and thinking about religion, he/she realizes that there might be beautiful and true histories in the bible, but a super natural god-magician, living in a building that is called heaven and should exist invisible in the sky is highly unlikely. Unless it is a spaceship of an alien race that is has presented itself in the pas as powerful gods (imagine you are in a helicopter and you are landing with a lot of noise near a dark-skinned tribe of which the people have never seen a flying object filled with white people, you surely would be considered and treated as a god). So, it is more likely that democratic minded people will also more likely turn their back to religion.

Some of us will be less fearful of reality, because we've rationally arrived at having no faith. However, we are overall probably more fearful due to that fact as theists don't consider reality since their imaginary friend will make things all better after they die.

I get braver a little bit more every day... it's really strange how i told myself that this is it and I refuse to believe this crap anymore. I said it, but I would say .005 of me wanted to hang on to a supreme being idea. I feel like we were designed, built, and programmed. I have nothing to do with hair, finger nails, and toe nails, but yet they grow. It's something to think about...

I am very motivated by fear. I have found that most fear is a result of ignorance, so my greatest fear is fear itself. When I do find myself in fear of something I investigate it, once i know what I'm dealing with ,even if it is scary, I do not have irrational fear but sound reasons to be concerned and i can take appropriate actions to deal with the issue.
This is why I can deny the Holy spirit(an unforgivable sin) and mean it when I say I would not want to go to heaven where it is impossible to be human, and that the abrahamic God is Evil. I have nothing to fear of what was made up by the imaginations of man.

So I am not in any way immune to irrational fears, I simply approach and address my fear differently than when I was a child fundamentalist wacko. I attempt to identify those fears and address them. In this context I believe many agnostics and atheist do in fact deal with fear much better than theist, and those that do not value rational thought.

Thank you for the post It is not a thought I have consciously thought of before other than to know I face my fears directly.

I don't like the idea that I'm finite. Having said that, should I be anxious about death? From what I've heard and seen personally, when death approaches the only concern I have is the pain of physical illness. Otherwise, there seems to be a peaceful state when we die.

Just the fact that anything exist says very loudly to me, that space is infanant. And it's hard for me to even imagine this. I mean how could it end and if it did what's beyond that? Maybe a never ending nothingness, more Galaxy's that go on forever.
What I'm getting at is most people don't appreciate human life in the way it should be. The whole thing would be a complete wast if we weren't here to experience it. And I'm just thrilled I got the chance to live, love, and somewhat understand the awesomeness of existence.
As for your question. I have no fear of death. I see death as purely natural. And there's only one of two possibilities. I continue to exist and have another adventure. Or I don't, in which case I won't have to worry about anything. And I'm just fine either way.
I believe I resemble the non-conformist. I chose not to wast my precious time contemplating political issues. I practice kindness when I get the chance.

The only way conservative threats mean anything is if you still have religious fears in your head. Freeing your mind helps you see truth. There is nothing to fear but fear itself--so true. Free-thinkers can look at truth and evidence, discerning how to approach and improve things with reason and careful thought. Religion is the opiate. Maybe i'm an outlier, but unreasonable fear left me when I left religion. I know humankind can reject the sloths and do the right things.

i equate conservative with obstructor of social change for the greater good

Interesting! It does seem that religious people are more conservative. So they are more influenced by the threat of religion and the threat of going to hell?! I would think I'd they drew that conclusion, they would be more afraid of the commandments and following them. I really don't see that happening though. Something to contemplate.

I feel my atheism has contributed to me being more fearful.
Would one that has awakened from a psychotic episode in the midst of a cannibal dinner feel more afraid or less afraid that those that remain "in the moment"?

No one is immune, but it seems to me that, if one were driven by fear as a believer--such as a fear of God's disapproval, or of eternal damnation and punishment--that predilection may not have been eased through de-conversion. The emotion of fear is not subject to political persuasion--it would depend on what one fears, would it not? Irrational fears are often called phobias, and one would hope--admittedly, never a good strategy--that the more rational one's thinking processes are, the less irrational their fears.