I'll get back into the real topic instead of the back and forth with the believers in this thread.
I know your fear. I am an atheist too, and I also have spent a long time ponder about death and the fear for death. Like you, I was really sure that there just isn't anything else after death. Even the idea that my atoms would 'live on' inside other things did not do much for me, as *I* would be gone.
What helped me a bit was the following thought process:
We, as humans, generally accept the fact that we are alive as a given fact. Even religions don't really take time to wonder what miracle it is that exactly you have been born, and not someone else. But thinking about it, it's a 'miracle'. You've been very lucky to be alive to start with!
But what really opened my eyes was a movie (from National Geographic) about the universe, which I saw in an Imax theatre. It focussed on the discoveries made by a certain satellite and they shows absolutely gorgeous pictures of stars, starclouds and milkyways. As they start with our own solar system you already think 'it's kinda big'. When zooming out to show other nearby stars, I was impressed. Then it zoomed out to show that there were great clouds giving birth to thousands of stars, which looked absolutely amazing. Our own milkyway is huge and has already stars beyond counting and observation. The movie casually zoomed out to show that there were actually millions of milkyways in the universe. Of course I had heard the numbers before, but really seeing it and really realizing the scope made me more humble. And suddenly, death seemed to matter less.
It's a miracle (not in the religious sense of the word) that I'm here to start with. I live in a universe that is so big that we'll never explore it.
Also, I plan to leave my marks where I have lived. People will remember me. They will tell stories of me. I will leave my diaries to my children. And luckily my family is big on geonoligy, and dutifully keeps the records of the family tree - I know my information won't get lost quickly, and thus a part of me will be saved. The concept of *I* is more then who I am. It is the traces I leave here, it is the stuff I write, it is the memories that other people have, and the children I have. And the impact of people last longer then they give themselve credit for. I likely won't be remembered after 200 years, but small traces of me will always be around, like an echo.
I know your fear. I am an atheist too, and I also have spent a long time ponder about death and the fear for death. Like you, I was really sure that there just isn't anything else after death. Even the idea that my atoms would 'live on' inside other things did not do much for me, as *I* would be gone.
What helped me a bit was the following thought process:
We, as humans, generally accept the fact that we are alive as a given fact. Even religions don't really take time to wonder what miracle it is that exactly you have been born, and not someone else. But thinking about it, it's a 'miracle'. You've been very lucky to be alive to start with!
But what really opened my eyes was a movie (from National Geographic) about the universe, which I saw in an Imax theatre. It focussed on the discoveries made by a certain satellite and they shows absolutely gorgeous pictures of stars, starclouds and milkyways. As they start with our own solar system you already think 'it's kinda big'. When zooming out to show other nearby stars, I was impressed. Then it zoomed out to show that there were great clouds giving birth to thousands of stars, which looked absolutely amazing. Our own milkyway is huge and has already stars beyond counting and observation. The movie casually zoomed out to show that there were actually millions of milkyways in the universe. Of course I had heard the numbers before, but really seeing it and really realizing the scope made me more humble. And suddenly, death seemed to matter less.
It's a miracle (not in the religious sense of the word) that I'm here to start with. I live in a universe that is so big that we'll never explore it.
Also, I plan to leave my marks where I have lived. People will remember me. They will tell stories of me. I will leave my diaries to my children. And luckily my family is big on geonoligy, and dutifully keeps the records of the family tree - I know my information won't get lost quickly, and thus a part of me will be saved. The concept of *I* is more then who I am. It is the traces I leave here, it is the stuff I write, it is the memories that other people have, and the children I have. And the impact of people last longer then they give themselve credit for. I likely won't be remembered after 200 years, but small traces of me will always be around, like an echo.
