I am an atheist. There is no god. There is no afterlife. One day soon, really in just the blink of an eye, I will be gone. Fairly soon after that all memory of me will be gone. The universe will carry on but even something as large as our solar system eventually will be swallowed in the death of our sun. And I'm not happy about this. What I would really like is to live forever, or at least until I get bored of it, preferably as fit and healthy 20-something-year-old. Failing that I would settle for some type of heaven. But I can't. And I don't like the thought that I can't. No-one does, even those of you whom claim to not fear death must accept that you wish you could continue living (until you get bored etc). No matter who you are and what you believe, everyone has the same thought - they want to live.
I know I will one day cease and, deep down, I have to admit I am scared about it in some way. But I know there is nothing I can do about. And if there is nothing I can do about it, why should I worry about it? OK, so one day I will be dead. But I'm not now, and since I'm alive now I might as well live. The fear is there but I accept it and don't let it rule me.
The religious way is the coward's way. No matter how much people believe in gods and souls and afterlives, behind it all is the fear that one day they will cease to be. Instead of facing the fear head on and accepting it for what it is, instead they come up with endless stories about how the thing they are scared of is not really there. Eventually, in many cases, the fear takes over their whole life and they must accept every new thing, no matter how small, no matter how silly, that provides temporary relief from the realisation that death is always ahead of them.
I prefer my way. There is no point dwelling in the past or the future. Forget the troubles of the past because they are behind you. Ignore the troubles of the future because they might never come. Take life as it comes and enjoy what you have simply because you have it.
Well... one can lead to the other, perhaps it's just not necessarily true. I think the more extreme the negative emotions are though the more likely you are to fear things which bring them on. I.e. I don't fear falling over and grazing my knee, but if someone looks like they're about to stab me I fear the pain of a knife going into me. I can't think of many extreme examples of negative emotions that wouldn't also be accompanied by fear... i.e. there is a threshold which needs to be met in terms of the strength of these emotions before they start to manifest what I'd call fear.
