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[quote=Anonymous]I'm an atheist of sorts raised without religion. Have not posted on this thread before. My DH is a buddhist, and he struggles profoundly with the concept of impermanence. He fears death, but he categorizes this mostly as a fear of missing out on wonderful things he's experienced in life that he hopes will continue. He fears dying young and not being present for parts of our young child's life. He fears causing grief to people he loves. He fears non-existence while also understanding per his spiritual teaching that all beings are in an endless cycle of death and rebirth.

DH is generally a very change-averse person who prefers routine and dislikes disruptions to his routine. Even happy disruptions are stressful for him, and he does a lot of anticipatory stressing about things like travel, the beginning of the school year, etc. I think that his fear of death is similar - he is definitely squeamish and is squicked out by the physical realities of death (and ageing, and birth, for that matter) - but really the problem is that it is a change that he perceives to be irreversible.

My advice to him is that he should focus on living in the moment (which is solidly within his spiritual teachings anyway) because regardless of whether there's a hereafter or reincarnation is real or there's just nothing and you don't even know it, what you do know and do control is how you live the life in front of you.

I have never been afraid of death myself, do not feel a God-shaped void, and feel that if people have a God-shaped void and that filling it with God makes them feel less afraid, that is great. No one should die alone and afraid. If someone feels that their God is with them and finds comfort in that, I am all for it. It's just not something I personally have ever ascribed to personally since I was not raised in any religious tradition.[/quote]

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