I know it sounds strange but this is why FFRF was formed because it helps you to recover from religion. Some people "suffer" in or out of a religion while others do not.

Of course there are Atheists who fear hell.
The fact that you can see that as odd shows me you never suffered deep indoctrination.

That is why [recoveringfromreligion.org] was formed--(many thanks to anglophone for this repair)

It is an irrational fear from indoctrination similar to PTSD
They don't believe anymore, but they have nightmares, or terrifying thoughts "what if I'm wrong?" which then activate much used neural paths trained to react via the religions dogma.

Atheists who fear hell. Its an oxy moron

My last marriage was hell & it scares me.

Not surprising. Some atheists are former Christians and some of those had hellthreat drilled into them for years. You can't just shut that off because you intellectually know it's BS.

I came from a relatively mild evangelical group and never really bought into that as a personal concern. But I've met plenty of people who are truly tormented by it.

Anyone who fears Hell is not a very devout atheist.

Technically they are not atheists then. Rather agnostics or in denial fearing to commit.

The concept of Hell is nothing but a fairy tale just like the existence of a god. Sometimes I wish there were a hell, as there are some "special" politicians I'd like to know have gone, while others are will be going there.

Ridiculous.If they fear hell then they are not really atheists.

I don't fear what doesn't exist.
But I guess that's just me.

I couldn't read the article because of their adblocker requirements but I can imagine that most people have some sort of boogieman that they fear. Since many atheists were programmed at an early age to believe in a boogieman called Satan then it stands to reason that there could still be an irrational fear, much along the same lines as werewolves have for some people in spite of the fact that there is no evidence that werewolves exist.

I guess if you’ve never been indoctrinated in the first place it’s hard to grasp that fear of hell is so deep rooted that it persists after belief in god goes. Scary stuff indeed!

Atheists fearing hell seems to be an artifact of having that drilled into one's head. I think, in time, most will come to realize that they don't have to fear that which does not exist.

The idea of there being a hell was something that always bothered me when I was a believer. Letting go of that belief was one of the first things that I was able to do as an atheist. It was such a great feeling, knowing that good people were not going to be tortured for eternity by some psycho god.

I think the best we can do when we encounter an atheist who still worries about this, is to use the Bible to show them that hell is a fabricated place. The Jews didn't, and don't, believe in hell; and not even all Christians believe in it.

If this god created hell, why did he wait so long to threaten his creation with it? Hell as we "know it" is a Christian invention, and it is a despicable one! That Jesus supposedly believed in this place of eternal punishment for flawed, finite, beings, shows that he was not all that wonderful after all. No being full of immeasurable love could ever create such a place.

Then they aren't actual Atheists.

Religion has so much baggage it is often very difficult to rid oneself of it all. I still find things that I believe that are rooted in my Christian indoctrination as a child. As I discover each one I ask myself why do I believe this. If I can not come up with a rational reason, i no longer hold that belief.

People are afraid of a lot of irrational things. My daughter is so afraid of spiders that she won't step on one, she'll scream for me to come do it. People are afraid of harmless species of snakes. People are afraid of cats or dogs.

You say, "But all those things exist"? So what? It's the irrational fear we're talking about. People can have an irrational fear of a serial killer coming after them, just because they saw it on the news... in another city.

Being afraid of a place of which you were taught to be terrified, all your childhood- I get that. Especially since I wistfully think sometimes, "Hey, if there were an afterlife, here's what I would like it to be..."

I still fear hell. But I quit that job 21 years ago........

many atheists and agnostics have yet to adopt a new narrative so their mind still compares things to their old one. thats why it's important not to stop at this phase. it leads to ill will. you need a new narrative.

Many--perhaps most of us--have some irrational fears (=phobias). However, if I feel 99% sure that the Christian's God does not exist I still don't see how it would be irrational to fear hell out of the 1% uncertainty remaining--especially since failure to believe is a sin for (many of the ) Christians.

Maybe technically a 99/1 percent disbeliever would still be an agnostic, but I usually think of agnostics as disbelieving/believing around 50/50, or 40/60 percent. Otherwise Christians would be agnostics because they all pray, "Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief," don't they?

Silly article.

narf

Why it's the fun place

This one's easy . According to the Bible , God created angels . One of the Angels was Lucifer , which means bearer of Light . Lucifer revolted against God , so God cast him out of Heaven . Lucifer / Satan was cast into Hell . If God created Lucifer / Satan . but God does not exist , then he could not have created Lucifer . Therefore Hell does not exist . Therefore ,only those who believe in God , can go to Hell , because it does not exist for the non-believers . Sleep tight , Honey .

Hell is a religious concept .
Anyone who believes in hell cannot be a true Atheist

Your god is dead, and no one cares.
If there is a hell, I'll see you there.
NIN (Trent Reznor)

and for good measure:

you give me yours
i'll give you mine
cause i can look your god
right in the eye
Tori Amos