I was wondering if Atheists are attatched to their dead. If an Aunt dies, does an atheist mourn?
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Personally, I've never had anyone really close die yet (though it probably won't be too long, sadly), so I don't know exactly how it will affect me. But I've mourned even when it's someone I see rarely (a great-aunt I used to see once or twice a year, for instance) - not for very long, but I did.
Actually, an atheist may well mourn even more strongly than someone with faith.
For example, when my companion of 14 years passed away, I bawled like a baby, but her fundie family members in the room were almost completely dry-eyed, because they expect to meet her in an afterlife I don't believe in.
It's a great example of how people derive comfort from such beliefs -- but it does nothing to make them any more likely to be true.
~David D.G.
Ask Mary Tillman, Pat's mother.
Ask my wife, who lost friends during 9/11.
Either way, you'll probably learn the truth fast and regret asking faster.
If anything we mourn more because we know we will never see them again as there is no afterlife, the end means the end, forever. Plus, you do not have a monopoly on emotion, although perhaps on ignorance I could give you credit?
Well, seeing as how atheists don't believe they will see that relative again in the afterlife, why don't you think we'd actually be even more upset than a fundie?
My father died and then about a year later one of my best friends hung himself. I'm an atheist and yet I don't wonder if a fundie would have gone through the same hell that I did, I assume they would despite my first paragraph. What the hell is wrong with this asshole?
Ask that question when someone important to me dies and you'll likely learn that I can concurrently mourn, insult, and inflict minor injuries. I'm an atheist, not an emotional invalid.
No, we usually eat them or leave their bodies to the wild animals, to get them back faster into circle of life./EndOfSarcasm
Of course we mourn, you twit. We are humans after all, no matter how much you pretend that we are not.
Aunt Ethels idies...I like Aunt Ethel, and will now never see her again...gee, yeah, why on earth would I mourn?
Of course! They are never going to live again, we'll never get to see them again. Of course we mourn when our loved ones die. We're human beings. Even the religious mourn when the people they love die, even when thye are convinced that the deceased is in heaven now and they will someday be reunited. I don't question the sincerity of their grief. Most atheists don't have that comfort. How can anyone question the sincerity of our grief for lost loved ones?
Maybe Sophie meant this as an honest question. In which case I pity her. What sort of callous monsters does she think we are? Just because atheists don't believe in God doesn't mean we're not human beings.
I've never lost a relative or aunt. I've never lost a human being close to me. I've lost pets though, and that was painful enough. I can't imagine how awful it must be to lose a human being you care about and love.
I don't have any aunts. But the grandmothers and grandfathers and great grandfathers and great grandmothers, cousins-in-law and friends who have died, they do each leave a void in my life. I mourn the loss of their company, their humor, humanity, friendship.
What does this have to do with anything else?
A Christian believing he'll see the relatives in the afterlife, does HE really mourn?
I still hope that I will see, especially, my paternal grandmother somewhere, but I don't count upon it. That makes my mourning BIGGER, not smaller, dumbass!!!!!!!!!
There is no reason to be attached to the dead, physically. That is just a mass of flesh and bones, rotting away. What we ARE attached to is their personality, which kind of disapears when they die.
why wouldn't I be sad when somebody I care about dies? It means they aren't around anymore and I'll miss them.
Why would a Christian mourn for a Christian that died, they are going to Heaven right? so why mourn?
Unless she was an utter, screaming bitch, I would imagine so, yes. Hell, even if she was, he might.
Yes, of course.
If anything its worse for athiests, because we know that once the people we love are dead, we will never see them again, and that everything we ever loved about them is gone forever.
If an Aunt dies, does an atheist mourn?
Yes, we're humans who feel emotions, not robots.
Um, yes in fact. In fact, atheists have more reason to mourn the death of a loved one than fundies. After all, when they're dead, they're dead, so they'll never see them again in heaven.
Yes, especially as we know that we are never going to see them again. They are not waiting on some frothy cloud somewhere. I can understand why that sort of wishful thinking can be a real emotional crutch at a time of grief, but wishful thinking is all it remains.
And yes, just because we don't believe in any gods does not mean we are heartless robots, you cretin.
Of course they do! I suppose you also think they're incapable of love. I'm not even an atheist, and I mourned my dad more than my family will ever realize. But he's dead and gone, no loner physically here, and not even the existence of an afterlife could change that. That's what anyone who's lost a loved one misses the most: having them HERE, in this life, to give them comfort, advice, and share laughs.
dont we eat them. ?
no I suppose burial, a marker and mourning are what we do. Someones death is sad.
Why does a christian mourn someone who is in heaven ?
Yes, perhaps more than you do, sophie, as we don't believe that we will meet in heaven later. When an aunt dies, she's gone forever.
Why would atheists not be attached to their family and friend, btw? It's just deities we don't believe in, we do believe in human beings.
No, because we athesists "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"
... you fundies however, never care about this life except as a stepping stone to your next life.
We're not attached to the dead, we're attached to the living. That's why we mourn people's death, they're no longer with us.
We just don't walk around throwing out piss-poor fairy tales about 'She's in a better place' or 'she's with Grandma, now' or 'we'll see her again, some day.'
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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