Help me not fear heaven/hell

[adey67]

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

My first comment is on the necessity of patience, typically fear of hell is one of the last things to go once you leave religion behind. It can take years for that nagging  fear to go away completely and sometimes it stays with people for their whole lives  all be it at a much reduced and manageable intensity.  

My second comment I hope will help you  to combat the anxiety you are feeling.
There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that humans have a soul/life force that is capable of surviving death.

The existence of an indestructible life force capable of housing our thoughts memories and personalities means that dementia head injuries brain tumours etc should have absolutely no effect on the above mentioned and yet we know they do.
Every thought personality trait etc is the result of the electro chemical reactions in our brain, that ends at death.

Of course the religious will counter this by saying that the soul is only activated at death or some such variation on a theme however that's just a desperate apologetic and must necessarily involve magical thinking.

It is a fact that philosophically no one can say with absolute certainty what happens after we die, where there are gaps in our knowledge there is always a greater than zero% chance of something being possible but just because something is philosophically possible doesn't make it plausible, to quote Mark Twain " I have been dead for billions of years before I was born and not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it"