No I'm a happy Heathen, we are born , live die and then we physically rot away whilst perhaps something of us that is left is reborn-I don't buy into the Christian idea of birth, death, heaven and hell at all I'm afraid.
When I was younger I stopped an old lady in the street and said excuse me I hope you don't mind me saying but you've got a mark of something on your forehead...
Sandy, you will have to explain what relevance ash wednesday has to a 'sceptic'. The words are not 'dreadful', they a statement of fact, albeit somewhat poetic. You seem to have more fear of death than the non-believers and you have a place booked in heaven (allegedly), don't you find that rather strange?
The beauty in being dead is that the means by which one might be conscious of it are no longer functional. On a conscious level we are immortal in that upon death the capacity for knowing no longer exists. Being alive is the scary part in that therein lies an alternative.
Ash wednesday is a day of repentance and it marks the beginning of Lent.
There is loads more information on google but I know how much you lot
hate cutting and pasting. Good job I don't know how to do links, still!