I find this amusing because I am the EXACT opposite. If I actually believed in a god or an afterlife, and especially in something like reincarnation or rebirth, I would kill myself immediately. Screw what god wants and bring on hell; I know it's the only place I'd go. If I'm gonna go there eventually and it truly is "eternal" then just take me there right now; the rest of my life doesn't matter at all on such a grand scale. I'd even willingly hand my "soul" to the devil; I just don't care anymore. If there is a god, then I hate him passionately. That's what religion did to me.

But then atheism saved my life. I finally decided that, since there is simply not enough evidence for a god or an afterlife or anything else, the most likely scenario upon death is simply oblivion. Our "sense of self" ceases to exist when the brain dies, and that's it. It's not a "sleep" or anything like that -- it's simply the end of everything we are, were and ever could be. All of our feelings, thoughts and potential, gone in an instant. Then I realized that this is the only chance I get; once my life is over, there is no doing it over and there is no continuation. So while death would take away the pain of loneliness and depression and all the other bad things, it would also take away all the good things -- forever! No more good days, no more pleasurable feelings, no more BEING! And that train of thought has helped me tremendously. I may have gotten a raw deal -- due to sheer chance, not "luck" or "karma" or a "plan" or anything dumb like that; nature isn't good or evil, it just IS -- but I can still experience fleeting moments of joy or feelings of pleasure here and there. I can still LIVE, here and now!