I like to ask people what their deepest fears are. It tells me a lot about them. It tells me what they feel is important. It's not good to live your life in fear. I did that for a long time. I was afraid of hell. I was afraid of what God would do to me if I didn't live my life trying to be how the bible said. That was my deepest fear. It really sucked too. I could never seem to live up to what God wanted me to be. But the fear kept me trying even though it made me miserable. I'm glad I was brave enough to face my fear.I believe that we all must face our fears. If we can do that we can be free. The first part of facing our fears is to know what they are. Sometimes we are so afraid of what we fear that we don't even want to think about it. How can you face it if you are that afraid? You can't. So getting people to start thinking about what they fear is what you need to do.
Mickey Malkin has this thing where she asks the people in the atheism newsgroup questions. I was lucky enough to have her choose one of my favorite questions. A lot of people responded. It was great. Here is a list of things that atheists fear...
That my children die before me. I would miss them terribly. Or, here is my conundrum that I die before my son because who would take care of him. I am terrified to die before him and I am terrified to have him die before me.
Chani
Two things spring to mind depending on interpretation of the question.
1: phobia- Heights I have an average fear of them. Precipices simultaneously thrill and scare me. BTW thrill seeking is not why I scuba dive, honest.
2: general type philosophical and psychological: People. For all the reasons that come to almost everybody's minds.
Mark Gradwell.
A theocracy in America.
Roy Fulmer
What if my mind *doesn't* operate rationally, and what I think are logical conclusions are wrong?
(Yes, I realize parts of my mind aren't strictly rational, but are driven by emotions. What I'm concerned about is the stuff I *think* are rational.)
Carl Funk
My deepest fear is the IRS, followed by the County Tax Collector. Somewhere in the running is an ever-expanding Federal Bureaucracy, looking for more ways to regulate my life.
A close runner is also being old and incapacitated, and at the mercy of some bureaucrats.
Only two things are certain, death and taxes.
Death is the lesser evil.
Oh, and injuries to my dogs. Allie put her paw through a front window, nearly missing an artery, but cut to the bone, requiring sedation, surgery, stitches, overnight at the clinic, and $229. I came home from work and no one was home but Smokey, and he wasn't talking. I was a little freaked, because Allie's collar and leash were on a table, which means she's either dead or injured. Good thing I didn't notice all the blood on the bathroom floor, or the dining room carpet. My son put a compression bandage on her paw, after pulling her back from the window (barking at postman, or something). My wife returned from an errand, and rushed her to the vet.
The vet said dogs who do things like this when no one is around are often found bled to death.
Ok, thanks, I feel better now. Reminds me of the time my wife called to tell me about my other son almost losing a finger in a lawnmower.
Jeff/addesign
"Death"
Living in a country where most decisions are made with the assumption a God exists. A belief that promotes the idea that you can only get justice when your foe is dead, a belief that accountability is removed with few simple words, on request.
If there is a evil it is God, for only evil would immunize us against the ideas of swift and judicial justice that are the basis of a fair society.But, as luck would have it, most Christians only pay lip service, when not ignoring such teachings. The only problem is that so many still view Christianity so highly, and allow it to be used to undermine elected officials (Clinton). Clinton's no saint, but there's a reason he should not be impeached on moral grounds as opposed to legal ones, that is "who's" morals, mine, yours or the next fascist to raise their ugly head.
Christians would not want a Atheist defining their morality, then why do they
find it so hard to understand why this atheist doesn't want them defining mine.
That the next time I get carted off to hospital with an oxygen mask on my face, they let the god-botherers in to plague my final moments.
Diem
The biggest problem facing the world today is overpopulation. We are developing the technology to annihilate all non-human life. Scientists are giving us the weapon and overpopulation is giving us the motive. We may pull the trigger. When given a chose between living and protecting the environment, most people choose life. We don't want to put people in the position of having to choose. Overpopulation causes poverty. 2000 years ago, if you had nothing, you still had the forest. Now, you will really have nothing. People in the coming titanium age may look back on the stone age as something better.
Michael Alexander
Isms. Fundamentalism, racism, nationalism, militarism, authoritarianism in all its' forms.
Personally for myself I don't fear too much. I have no wife or children which probably means you automatically have less to fear.
Peter Kelly
I really wonder about the concept of answering questions *as a this or as a that*. What does it mean? My deepest fear is harm coming to those I love. Whether that's "as an atheist" I don't know.
Red Foster
To become an orphan at the young age of eighteen (which I am now). I don't know if I could handle it. I probably can but I'd rather not know! :-)
Gerben
My only real fear is radiation. I have faced down an armed assailant and ended up with his gun - nothing that I can see, hear, feel or smell scares me. I am every dentist's nightmare - 2 years behind on checkups and a record of refusing X-rays that goes back to my first adult dentist's appointment. There are areas of my adopted city (Moscow) that I will never visit due to rumored radioactive waste dumps. I also change my microwave every 2 years, although this time I will buy a steam cooker instead.
Ian
Giving a speech to a large crowd.
It's either that or McDonalds.
WingedBeast
The future as my daughter will experience it.
Dale
As an atheist, my biggest fear is that the religious right will successfully take over the country (the U.S.), overturn the Constitution and declare christianity the state religion, prosecute/persecute the unbelievers and plunge the nation into a new "dark ages." These are scary times...
After that, my biggest fear is of heights. Make me break out in a cold sweat, they do, so much so that I can barely tolerate plane flights ;-)
Dan Chaney
I have more than one 'concern' about society in general as well as myself and those I love and care about, but since the question asked what my deepest 'fear' was, I think my personal phobias probably better fit the question than any concerns I may have.
My first phobia is one I'm not sure even has a name: a fear of being stuck alone outside in severe weather.
To this day I still find it uncomfortable to watch the twister scene in the Wizard of Oz movie. <shiver!> Even when I'm safely inside my house or apartment, when the sky begins to get an ugly shade of greenish-black and the winds begin picking up, I become quite nervous.
My other phobia is a fear of being in large crowds of people I know. Large crowds of people I don't know -- like at an outdoor concert or something - don't phase me at all. But if I'm in a party situation where there are more than a couple people that know me, I become quite uncomfortable due largely to a very embarrassing (public humiliation) incident that took place in the first grade. And it doesn't do any good knowing what the root cause of my fear is nor that it's irrational either. It's there, it's very real, and I can't shake it. (It's amazing how such psychological damage done at such an early age can stick with you and affect you so profoundly for the rest of your life, isn't it?)
If I had to pick which of the two are my deepest fear, I guess it'd be the fear of being publicly humiliated. The weather thing I can control to some extent by simple using my wits to take cover, but there's very little that can be done to alleviate the feelings of worthlessness one feels when most everyone around you is laughing *at* you. <shudder!> When that happens I feel like crawling under a rock and dying.
I guess it's mostly a fear of being totally and completely alone and cut-off from society (e.g. ostracized). I know I could probably survive on my own, but without others to interact with, life would be too lonely and pointless to go on living I think.
So I guess my deepest fear is being alone.
And interestingly, if such a fear -- or remotely similar fear -- is as common among others as I believe it might be, it might help explain why it's apparently so easy for some to get 'caught up in' mysticism (i.e. religious belief): they simple go along with the crowd because they're afraid of being ostracized.
So I guess my becoming an atheist means I've managed -- at least to a degree -- to overcome my deepest fear. I now no longer fear it to the degree I once did. I've managed to allay that fear enough to allow clear thinking and rationality to win out over the desire to go along with the crowd, thus allowing me remain the strong atheist I am today.
Yea! for me, huh? I have battled my deepest fear and won!
Due in no small part to those who participate in this very news group.
Thanks, people!
<stands tall and proud>
I'm an atheist now, and *DAMN* proud of it! So all you wimpy theists can try what you will to humiliate me in my disbelief, but I ain't falling for it. I'm over it now.
I'm a Bad Assed Atheist With Attitude so you can just PISS OFF!
<bristle!>
(heh!)
:)
(I think I'm in the mood now to filet a bleater. Anyone have a particular
someone in mind?) >;-)
--
"Fish" (David B. Trout)
The takeover of the US by the Religious Right (or wrong, more accurately). After that, spiders.
Michelle Martin
Seeing my family harmed and being unable to do a thing to defend them. It's a nightmare I sometimes have and possibly the reason why I am such an optimist in reality. (If this previous sentence makes no sense it's just that I prefer to dwell on humanity's nicer side rather than live in fear of what could happen.)
If the question was what would be my 'atheist-fear' it would have to be the day when I was given undeniable evidence that a Robert Lee type god actually existed! That however will NEVER happen and that I suppose is why I'm an atheist. :)
PinkyMan #1365
That I will suffer a painful and lingering death. I want it to be quick and painless.
Xalan
What does this mean? I have to chop up my identity and figure out which fear goes where?
Well, okay: my deepest fears, by Dianna
As a mother, harm to one of my children.
As a wife, loss of my husband.
As a writer, losing all bodily functions except that of my right big toe.
As a human, other humans.
As a woman, death at the hands of a rapist/murderer.
As a rationalist, Alzheimer's.
As an atheist? A country run by fundamentalists.
As a test subject, apparent stupidity.
As an atheist my deepest fear is not being allowed to be an atheist. I'm stubborn enough to be one anyway, though. I spent years, as a Christian, being mortally terrified of thinking anything, and going back to that would be the worst thing that could ever happen to me.
Neko
High places, anything over 6 feet up. after that, Yellow jackets and wasps
Sean Barr
A takeover by the Religious Right in the US.
I have the feeling that the American people do not want to be ruled by the RR, but that the RR could still gain power through stealth techniques. The RR would probably be kicked out after a couple more election years, but not before irreparable harm would come to our national laws, and the progress we've made in the last 40 years would be reversed.
I am heartened by last November's election and Clinton's acquittal, but the RR is not a group that will give up easily. I hope the American people have seen them for what they are, and will not ignore the danger that they present.
Chris Nelson
That for whatever reason I'm unable to take care of myself. Things like being hooked up to machines in order to live, being a quadriplegic, having my body decay while my mind still works perfectly.
That would just be nasty.
Blackguard (Will)
1. Being helpless. I hate and fear this thought more than anything else. This includes both mental and physical disabilities -- especially going blind, being paralyzed, getting Alzheimer, or losing my rationality. If any of these ever happens to me, the only thing I'd wish for is a swift death. Similarly, I could never live with being under someone's control or a burden on someone.
2. The stupidity, egotism, intolerance, mob-mindedness and wanton cruelty that far too many members of this damn species display in abundance.
<reluctant confession for honesty's sake>
3. That I'm anywhere near as stupid and "unfit" as I occasionally think I am.
</rcfhs>o
// Sarah J. #1102
@=====|O|>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
\\ Evil Atheist Conspirator
· Knight of the BAAWA
I don't really have any deep fears that make me lose sleep on a regular basis. If I have to think of one, it would be a debilitating disease that will most likely be deadly. If it was _certainly_ deadly it wouldn't be as bad, because all I could do is get used to the idea that I'd die of it (or commit suicide once I'm about lose my human dignity completely) -- but if there was _hope_ ...
I don't really know what this has to do with "as an atheist" though.
¨ Petteri Sulonen
Winding up in hell, surrounded by a roomful of blathering holier-than-thou (but weren't) fundies, without an a.a. member in sight to talk to :-)
Seriously, as an atheist, the only fear I have is the rising fanaticism and intolerance displayed by the religious in various countries around the world.
Keith Brannen
Probably suffering through cancer or something worse.
Mike Colby
I can't equate any fear that I have to being an atheist. However, I do fear something happening to one of my kids. The sick feeling you get when one of them breaks a bone, or doesn't check in or come home when they should is the worst feeling in the world. Others mentioned fearing a slow painful death, I faced that a couple of years ago, and didn't fear it then, still don't when I am not facing it any longer. Others mentioned fearing the fundies taking over the country, it is a concern, but they are in the process of self destructing, although they seem bent on destroying the Republican Party with themselves. All in all, there are many things to fear, but the harm or loss of a loved one is the worst of all.
Dick C., Atheist #1349
Actually, I have two reoccurring fears neither of which have anything to do with atheism. Lately, nothing in my life has anything to do with atheism. But I digress...
1. That I will be trapped in a dark airless room crowded with others who pin me in and prevent my escape.
2. That you are reading my mind, taking notes, and informing local law enforcement organizations.
I do find it fascinating that others fear some sort of Religious Holy War taking place in the near future. Sounds rather implausible to me but if it really bothers you that much, start frequenting gun swaps.
Todd Adamson
Well, I don't know that fear is applicable here. Certainly, fear requires a focus on something and the thing I'm most focused on is making a living and finding a compatible partner and environ-ment in which to flourish. Getting old? That is a slow and inevitable process that sucks in many ways. Being alone? Well, that happens quite often during the course of each day so I suppose that's a daily fear one is forced to deal with.
Death? I don't know that I fear that much anymore. Since I'm resigned to death as the end of all I can perceive, I cherish life all the more and recognize death as little more than an eternal sleep (without nightmares). Nothing more, nothing less.
I find life quite easy to deal with in terms of events outside my area of influence or control. Those areas directly under my control are quite a bit more challenging, I must say.
I yearn most for a connection with a female, a soulmate if you will, someone who will make it all appear to be worthwhile in some way. I suppose my biggest fear is that I will fail to find that special someone who I can connect with on a deep and special level.
Oh well, whatever will be will be.
Dan Fake
My deepest fear is to live knowing that something I did made someone kill themselves. I'd hate to live knowing that I made someone hurt so much that they couldn't bear to live anymore. As an atheist I understand how precious life is. It shouldn't be thrown away.
Veyanne
I have no deep fears that are related in any way to atheism.
As a human being, my deepest fears have to do with something bad happening to people I care about (my wife, my children, close friends, etc.) or suffering from a lingering, terminal illness. These are not matters that I worry about, but they are the things I most fear, when I think about such matters at all - which is not very often.
George Ricker
Duh!
That the key to immortality will be discovered the day after I die.More practically, I fear becoming a mental vegetable and having my body live on as a burden to those who love me. The idea of "me" not really being "me" anymore... very scary. Almost like "Invasion of the Body Snatcher".
Bill Thacker
Little things with sharp fangs. Like spiders and such bugs. Even when they're dead, they still creep me out.
The Deadly Nightshade
As an atheist I would have to say that people such as Ed or KarenHi were to have real power.That the religious actually did take over. If that happened it would be the dark ages again.
But I also think that in the future mother nature will have to be balanced again which means most or all of humanity will be wiped out one way or another. Everything seems to be in cycles. First the dinosaurs ruled the earth and they are gone and now we rule the earth and we will go full circle also. Might sound funny but nature will balance itself out. LOL....don't ask me what this paragraph has to do with the question. It just came out.
Rev.Jerry Atheist # 1452
Simple enough - the rise of theocracies.
Any time pixie believers get control of society BY LAW, it's only a matter of time until beliefs have to be hidden or face murder.
Xians and derivations thereof especially.
Dewey Heinz
Loosing my wife.
and second is lying in bed helpless, just waiting to die.
Puck Greenman