What’s to be afraid of? You won’t have to suffer the knowledge that you no longer exist, because you no longer exist.
I’m really, really, really scared of not existing. Asking “what’s to be afraid of?” doesn’t stop my being afraid.
But as long as I get to say something cool on my deathbed I’ll consider it a fair deal. 
What is the downside to not existing?
No cookies?
My inability to articulate exactly why I’m afraid doesn’t stop me from being afraid. Emotions like fear don’t have to be logical.
If an absence of religion causes you pain, perhaps it’s irrational for you to reject it.
Personally speaking, it causes me no pain because I will never totally die off. My identity is composed of possessions, family, friends, wardrobe, crap I wrote on the internet, and everything else. The self aware part of my identity is just one part.
If I knew I was about to die and I remembered my house was a mess, then I’d be scared shitless.
Which means one of your loved ones is going to find all that horse porn on your laptop when they go through it after you die looking for funeral invitees.
I’d rather die with my house a mess than die having just spent my last hours cleaning it.
First of all, you don’t know any more than the religious folks about what comes with death. For all any of us know, there might actually be an afterlife, of any description you care to come up with.
But if you insist on holding a religious faith in the nonexistence of an afterlife, there’s always Asimov’s argument on the subject. As he said, “I do not fear the nonexistence before I was born; why should I fear the nonexistence after I die?”.
Why is this the first I’m hearing of this?
I feared death when I was a kid and believed in the things the church taught. I wondered if I wasn’t REALLY saved and might spend eternity burning in hell.
The realization that when I die, it’s just over was a great comfort.
I agree with you. Life and existence is beautiful. Not existing is very sad and terrifying.
You can try making yourself feel better with some platitudes about how you’ll “live on through your accomplishments, your children, and the people whose lives you’ve touched” but deep down we all know that’s bullshit. I want to be around to experience and enjoy these things for myself!
But I’m not sure what the answer is. I just try not to think about it and carry some vague hope that either there is a pleasant afterlife or that technology solves the problem of death in my lifetime.
I find it very odd that people are 100% certain they know what happens when you die. That applies to atheists and religious people.
Unless I missed it, nobody has ever died and returned (at least it has not been proven). So to me that means nobody knows 100% what happens. But yet so many people on both sides have zero doubt about the outcome.
If I’m lying in bed at night unable to sleep the thought of my own death scares me too. During the day, not so much. I just try not to think about it.
I agree that a lot of the fear is who you leave behind. You don’t want your spouse, parents, kids , etc. to not have you around any more.
Why should I find the time after I exist any more frightening than I find the time before I existed?
You’ve a non-sequitur here: theism does not mandate an afterlife. Many religions say there is one, of course.
Oh, there’s a lot wrong with that OP, from the religions that don’t believe in (or are agnostic about) an afterlife, to the nonreligious people who humbly admit they don’t know what happens after we die, to the religious fanatics who assure us we’re most of us going to hell, not “a wonderful afterlife.”
For me, it’s because I think of the time before I came as a prelude to my existence, full of potential. Everything that happened before that fateful day of my birth was just leading up to my existence.
The time after, though, seems so final. That’s it for me forever. And that’s a serious bummer, because I am awesome and life is awesome.
Id be happy to live longer if my quality of life was OK.
But currently we will slowly decline and either gain ongoing health issues that will make death feel less scary at some point. So my only fear is dying too soon really, or in long term agony etc.
Otara