Yes, I am afraid of death (but I'm not afraid of the dark)

I've been wanting to say something like this for a while, and I saw an opportunity as a comment on this article in the Guardian.

Here's what I said (later edited - you can always follow the link above if you want to check what I wrote at the time -  and then see also the following post):

Hawking:

I'm not afraid of death, ....There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

Wenham:

the idea of extinction holds no more fear than sleep. It really is insulting to accuse me of believing there might be life after death because I'm afraid of the dark.

Well you two are different from me then. I'm bl**dy terrified of extinction. You people who don't have this fear, should read, for example, Julian Barnes "Nothing to be frightened of", Larkin's "Aubade" or Betjeman's 'Before the Anaesthetic". If you people really don't have this fear you don't know how lucky you are. (And actually I think it displays a lack of imagination.)

I can only assume that the likes of Hawking and Dawkins who love to mock 'afraid of the dark*' really don't understand this fear. If they did, and they continued to disabuse people of their only escape from the terror, they are no better than the 'hell fire' preachers who at least offered an escape.

*The dark? The dark? Is that really what you think I'm afraid of? I love the dark, but extinction is NOT the dark and if you think there is any parallel then it just proves that you don't understand the problem.