Dealing with Death as an Atheist

[henryp]

I've said this before, a lot of first worlders have a period of upwards of 60 years where death isn't a threat.  That's unheard of in the history of mankind.  It just has never happened.  We're not being drafted into wars.  Our countries aren't under any real threat of invasion.  Diseases and accidents are mostly flukish.  You can coast through decades without having to worry about it.

I'm not scared of crippling arthritis.  I don't quake in my boots at the idea of dementia.  But if my body becomes wracked with pain, or my mind starts going, my attitude towards it is going to change in a hurry.  

In the end, I just don't think humans are able to project that far into their future.  We are relatively short term thinkers.  That's why we'll skip the 1 minute it takes to put on sunscreen even though we all know about skin cancer.  Or we'll eat unhealthy.  Or smoke cigarettes.  Because we view the consequences of maybe getting cancer or heart disease somewhere down the road as abstract.

What's telling will be what happens when the end game roles around, and things get real.  I don't doubt that some people will be able to play it cool while others lose their shit.  At the same time, I'd guess that who's who on the spectrum of going out with grace and who's filled with terror will have pretty light correlation to the game they talked during the easy years.