More on Death and Afterlife

A comment from Duncan:


” I have been an atheist all my life. I wasn’t so much ‘raised an atheist’ as much as raised non-religiously, to the extent that religion was never mentioned when I was growing up.

“I’ve recently had to deal with the death of my father, this last March when I was 20. He died suddenly of cerebral haemorrage which is one of those most awkward deaths which gives a feeling of here-today, gone-tomorrow. I’ve had to deal with a lot of discussion particularly from eager-to-evangelise individuals about how I feel about this (don’t I believe in an afterlife!??!)

“The obvious answer is no. The less obvious answer is to say that… you reach a point where the notion of an afterlife seems sort of grotesque - like nothing happened at all, and you shouldn’t really feel sad because he’s gone to a better place and is just waiting round the corner etc etc. Because of course you do feel sad. Even (almost) a year on the most salient feeling I have about it is an intense feeling of missing him - wishing that I could see him again, that I could talk to him, that I could introduce him to friends and have him there when I’m proud.

“I can’t help but feel that the whole afterlife ‘thing’ sort of cheapens that feeling. Of course, one of the possibilities is that a strong appeal of religion is the relief from those feelings. One of the memes that keeps on cropping up - especially from Dan Dennett - is that ‘you have to be a strong person to not avail yourself of the crutch of religion when e.g. comforting a child whose parent has died. But I can’t help feeling you have to be a rather thoughtless and patronising person to do so. As though it’s better to lie to make someone feel better than to tell them the truth and let them deal with reality in their own way. It’s cheap and tacky and… ultimately… not very ‘christian’.”

A comment from Agnosis:

I’ve met death a few times in my teens and early twenties, all during the time I was a professing Christian. One thing I’ve found is that the belief of the afterlife doesn’t really offer that much consolation. Grief is what the living experience, it is how they must deal with reality, and reality is that life is now different because “X” isn’t around anymore. What usually brings more consolation is the remembrances of the deceased person’s life. Christian or not, theist or not, delusion or not, it is the life we live that is the only true consolation for those we leave behind as we pass to either heaven or earthworms.

A comment from Gina Alaetheia Marie:

As someone strung out between atheism and Christianity, I found this post interesting and it even brought tears to my eyes.

For the Christian life is an ever-flowing bottle of water, and to waste it is no matter. Embracing the moment is futile, since this life is just a gateway into the next.


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