Who is God?

I would also reach out to my family - it would never occur to me to suddenly become a believer. I think I will just cease to exist like a battery that has stopped charging. Nor do I think that anything will be left of my thoughts or memories. My mortal remains, in the form of ashes, will return to the soil and I will live on for a time in the memories of my family and friends, and in my poems.
I thought it was rather patronising to be told once 'There were no atheists in the trenches' - I am quite sure there were.

When I was told that dying was the most likely thing and, inadvertently given the last rites (my mama filled in the hospital form), I didn't feel I was ready to die (I was only 20). However, the anaesthetist who came to check on my condition (dire, including lungs full of pleurisy) was such fun and a fellow admirer of John Donne, that I said to him "You may be the last person I shall ever see – but that's okay, I reckon." I was ill but not delerious and he wasquite dishy.

Didn't have a problem in 1997 when faced with a similar situation. I wasn't ready for death but didn't need a "storm conversion". The anaesthetist was a middle-aged woman – to my chagrin.

ER , yea Absentgrana !?

I haven't felt the need to start believing when going through troubled times, parents dying etc.

I take comfort from the vastness of everything and that everyone who has ever lived has died or will die.

My father told me that when his mother was dying she said he was not to worry because she was going to join his father. Dad explained that his mother didn't believe in an after life; she just meant that she was going to another state, of being not alive, into oblivion or whatever.

That's good enough for me.

Nonu I was responding to your query. The prospect of death was not particularly pleasing on the two occasions in my life when it seemed imminent, but it didn't make me want to turn to a god or gods or start praying. Not every atheist turns out to be a closet religieuse on her deathbed, but some probably do.

I would think it more probable that agnostics, or those who haven't really thought about religion much, would be more likely to suddenly turn to a belief of some kind on their deathbed. I've never even thought about the possibility of a committed atheist doing it - although some may, of course.

My beliefs cover all eventualities ....I'm very fickle

If there is a heaven then theoretically I stand a good chance of getting in and have an after life. If there isn't then my ashes might merge with the earth and my spirit with the earth spirits and if they don't exist I still get to merge with the earth and help to make it more fertile.

Or I might just hang around as a ghost......but that's a whole different topic

So may I be as bold as to presume none of you guys are afraid of death ?

I like your beliefs, vampire!

BTW Blue Moon tonight - second full moon of the month...

Nonu...I'm not scared of being dead just the process of dying. I'm like to go gently and quietly in my sleep when I'm very old although as a fully paid up member of the 'God hates me' club I don't hold out much hope of that

vq considering your beliefs your choice of postingname seems very apt.
I like it.

I am certainly not afraid of death, but I would like to choose the manner of my dying. I would prefer it to be quick, like a heart attack, rather than a slow decline to the inevitable.

As Willie said:
Cowards die many times before their deaths
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.

I do fear the deaths of my children and their children. I have lived through 24 hours of believing my daughter was dying and I remember the shock and the horror. I still fear I will outlive her.

Anagram, my daughters and son will boogie along with their friends tonight as the Blue Moon's beams shine down on them - well, as long as the sky isn't too full of rain-clouds, anyway!
I think that I'd like to see my ashes mixed into the ground in the roots of a tree - that way, bits of 'was-me' will grow with the tree.
When I was really ill in hospital, about 10 years ago, I was on the top floor and in a side room. It was a really stormy night, and I could see the clouds scudding across the sky. I remember telling myself, that if I got better, I would NEVER let anyone direct my life again. I had quite a stressful job, and quite a lot of negative things were going on in my life. I think I've actually managed this. No praying - just pure determination and (according to some) bloody-mindedness!

Can't agree with Willie .
His was wishful thinking.
None of us die all at once, in the normal course of life.
We all die a little bit every time life throws something at us.
And then one day all the little bits add up, without us having noticed.
But then we have reached the end of all our little bits.

Thats okay then , you all seem to embrace death , tell u what , I don"t big time . hows about that then .

That's reminded me, Nonu - I could do with a cuppa!

johanna, I think that's quite profound...

My ashes are going to be scattered at the Howarth Waterfall in West Yorkshire where my husband proposed to me.

I have it all planned. Not because I'm morbid but because I once arranged a funeral for an old lady who had left all her wishes written down and it was so easy. She'd left instructions for everything. I knew which funeral director to use, that she wanted a white satin shroud not a pink one, which hymn she wanted to be sung. You name it she'd left instructions.

The hardest thing was to find the sheet music for The Old Rugged Cross

The only thing she didn't tell me was what to put on her gravestone as she felt she couldn't say what she really felt about herself. But in the end that was easy too because I simply merged part of the hymn and put 'A cross exchanged for a crown.'

Haworth waterfall.... I'd better make sure I've spelt it right in my instructions or who knows where I'll end up

Nonu for me it's not a question of not being afraid of dying, more that the fear has to be coped with without the belief in a God and afterlife.

To be honest, I'm not sure I'd want to survive for ever, in heaven or whatever.

I think we are dying all the time. By the time my father died in his eighties he was a shadow of his former self. My children are now in their 40s and sometimes I feel nostalgic/sad for the small children they used to be which are now no more (dead if you like).

Oh Sweet Lord , I will cope with you by my side ..

Night , night to all all u sweet posters , have sweet dreams , as I know I will , I always do .x

I don't embrace the idea of death - I have a lot of living to do yet. I just don't fear it because I don't believe any consciousness will remain.
As a child educated by nuns, I was terrified of dying because we were told we would have to suffer torment in purgatory before we were cleansed of our sins.

Like many Christians I am quite agnostic about what, if anything, happens after death. It's how we have lived our lives that matters. The key text is 'The Kingdom of God is within you'. And at the end of our lives I believe we have to ask ourselves if we have lived our lives according to moral principles and made the best choices we can.

Oh Greatnan aren't nuns wonderful. I was fortunate in that I didn't have the dubious pleasure of being taught by nuns but I know enough people who were to know what they were like.

From stories my favourites are the nuns of Lourdes who routemarch the sick through the Grotto.

I used to go on courses at a centre run by nuns. Sister C used to look at your ring finger and say in a soft, lilting Irish accent...."Have you ever thought about being a nun. Oh it's a great life and you can still work." As if being able to work full time and get up at 4am to pray was a dream come true.

We would grovel. "No Sister. Thank you Sister. I don't think I'm cut out to be a nun, Sister."