(March 16, 2019 at 4:34 pm)Fleeing Jesus Wrote: Hey, everyone. I thought I’d ask for some help here.
I was raised Christian but don’t believe in god anymore. I think it’s all nonsense. We’re on this pale blue dot alone. I believe in science and reason.
The problem is my atheism is only at 99%. There’s 1% of me that still thinks I could be wrong and that I’m going to hell for being a bad person. I’m also afraid of the idea of endless life, mostly because I struggle with anxiety and the idea of eternal anxiety in heaven is my idea of hell.
Can anyone help me unhinge the last 1% so that I’m not afraid of heaven and hell anymore? It would mean the world to me. I’d like to not have this hang over me for the rest of my life.
- Fleeing Jesus
So, is the idea of life simply ending when you die less scary than the idea of an afterlife? This would be the opposite of how many people feel, which is interesting. I don't really know if anyone can help you stop fearing hell or an afterlife; I think you just sort of have to think this through. You don't remember anything before you were born, right? And why would you? You did not have a conscious brain to experience anything... so... same thing for when you die. When your brain dies, you get turned off. And there's nothing.
And while we don't "know" this, we really have no reason to think otherwise. So far as we understand it, consciousness is the result of electrical activity in the brain. Once that activity goes dead, so does our conscious mind. Death, so far as we know, is just like before you were born... there is simply nothing. The computer gets shut down. You get powered off and you're gone forever. A little unsettling, actually. But it's all the more reason to enjoy things while you're here!
If you're frightened of dying, and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the Earth.
