Should Atheists fear a death without an afterlife?

A Christian recently posed a question similar to this on another site. My spontaneous answer follows (I mention spontaneous because I set up a series of points in the first paragraph and fail to follow-up in the remaining paragraphs):

There are a couple ways to look at this. First, there is the ridiculous Pascal's wager that says you might as well believe in god because the alternative is far worse. Well, that all depends on which doctrine of which religion you choose. Through the ages there have been millions of religions with billions of contradictory doctrines. Which will end you in the great weenie-roast and which will seat you at the hand of god? Who knows. What if you pick wrong? Is it better to imagine going to sleep and never waking or burning in hell for all eternity?

I fear death, but I think you do as well. I, however, treasure each moment on a far deeper level than do you. Every moment I hold my little girl or read with my son or see my wife smiling is one more prescious moment. There is no other world, there is no better place, there is no future life or sudden knowledge and peace awaiting me. There is here. There is now. There is the unfathomable chance that I ever existed. There were the millions of years before and there will be the millions of years after --this moment is glorious.

I lost my father last year. I hold him in my thoughts. I pass on his spirit to my children. I smile at sudden memories and mourn the inability to pick up the phone and share a laugh with him or even to ask him how to repair the sink. But I know he's not watching over me. I know he was here and I had a prescious few moments to share with him and if I'd wasted them waiting to see him again instead of feeling the full weight of that loss, I wouldn't be the father I am to my son. I'd be less of a man, teacher, husband and father. No question.

So, do I fear death? Certainly. Am I crushed by the weight of this fear? To be certain, I'm instead enlivened with it. I'm inspired and driven to live every moment to it's grandest potential. Nothing less would be acceptable. Nothing less would be living.