This fifth post of my series summarizes the atheist’s view on death and tragedy.
For an atheist, death is final, so when Rebecca Hensler’s infant son died, remarks such as, “He is in a better place,” “God has a plan,” or “Now he’s an angel,” did not make sense for her. “Grief Without God is a Challenge for Atheists” is an article that describes how atheists are finding comfort with one another as they look for a way “to process grief and sorrow without the trappings – or support – of religious ritual and belief.”
This article reveals that death is a common human experience, and that all people need to work through death and tragedy in their lives, regardless of their religious beliefs. As a result, arenas and spaces for atheists to properly grieve are incredibly important – that is why Hensler’s facebook page, Grief Beyond Belief, has almost 4000 likes. She is also hoping to see more secular, local grief support groups for atheists started up, as there is a limitation that an online community faces in supporting and caring for one another.
Join me next time as I explore another one of our culture’s perspectives on death.
This is sort of my belief in death! I’m more of an atheist but with a humble disclaimer that says “What the hell do I know? I’m a mere mortal living a blip in the bigger scale of the universe.”
I’m prepared, ironically enough, that once I die I will cease to exist as an emotional and a mental entity, and not even be aware of the fact that I am “dead” because I won’t have any more perception. But then, how can anybody prepare for nothingness? That’s just a word place into the sentence to make some degree of sense of it. Or, I am totally wrong, and my mind transfers to another dimension I am not yet aware of (that’s the agnostic side of me) and completely shocks me!
I guess I’m realistic enough to realize that every species has death coming its way, and some deaths come way early in life, others come later. We find solace in somebody who has lived to the maximum by their own social definition (that maximum has been increasing with medical advancement of course), and we find tragedy when a younger guy meets death through an accident, disease, homicide or suicide.
My coping mechanism has been that it’s just the way it is, like anything in this world, and that we should make the most of what time we have with our loved ones before they are (or I am) gone.
I agree with you that death is unavoidable – no one can escape it. And for some, it comes earlier and more tragically than for others.
By no means do I think I know everything that there is to know, but it’s actually precisely because of that, that I do believe that there must be something after death. How else does history make sense? Or even our lives? We are mere blips or blinks on the timeline of eternity, and why would we even exist for the mere short time that we do on earth, unless there is something else?
My father in law had an after death experience, and there are so many others who have caught a glimpse of the other side. In my soul, I know there is something more.
I agree with you that we do need to make the most of the time that we do have here on earth, but if that’s only going to be for a short period of time, how much more do we get to look forward to what’s going to come after?