I do fear death.
I fear it, because I'm an atheist.
Who in their right mind, as an atheist, wouldn't fear being blinked into nothing? I don't fear the pain of death, or the onslaught of death. That comes for us all. Billions before me have died...I will die just as they have. There's really nothing to it. Dying with dignity might be a bit trickier, and I'll do my best to do so.
But I enjoy my life. I enjoy all the things it gives me. I have no intentions of giving any of them up so that I may die. I would like to have them forever and a day.
I hope my wife passes before I do, so I can spare her the pain of watching me die. And I hope my children are well grown and have created their own families and don't need me that much when I die, so that my passing doesn't weigh them down too much.
If I'm wrong about this whole atheism thing, and knowing my luck, I probably am, then I'm going to hell anyways. Even if I were to have a flash of clairvoyance and knew to repent, if there's a god, he wouldn't want my kind in heaven anyways. I know my wife will be there though, so I'm happy about that. She believes in "something" when we die, so I hope her "something" is rewarding.
The best I can hope for is to be blinked into nothingness and in a generation or two, I'll be completely forgotten. No one will have cared about my quest for 19" arms or a 450 bench or shredded abs. They won't care that I saved enough for retirement, or that I had re-habbed a really bad knee. They won't care that I was a good father, or that I was a pretty good football player.
And even with that foresight of knowing that no one will care, I yet still press on to achieve what I want, even if it means nothing. Even if I'm some random quantum mistake projected as a hologram from the outer shell of the universe and my consciousness is simply a quantum entanglement of dark energy that spans across the multiverse. Despite all this, I press on. I have no choice. As uberman would rightfully point out, it is my genetic fate. The fates may be what they are...I will at least try to shape a destiny out of this fate while I still can. The day I lose the drive to do it is the day I decide to test the waters of nothingness and see I'm right or wrong. And I'm not wearing my bathing suit just yet.
Very similar to my take, except I do fear the "pain of death," as you say. I'd like to go out medicated to numbness. And I, too, envy the faithful, unless I'm not reading you correctly.
Though I don't expect to, if I should meet my maker, and He asks me why I didn't believe, I'm borrowing from Ricky Gervais:
"Why did You make me an atheist?"