since u don't believe in God or anything, what if your child dies , how do u deal with it? wouldn't it be nice to know that your child is in heaven with God?
or how do u explain that to your children when some1 dies?
2006-09-29 18:16:36 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Because I want the truth no matter how sad it makes me.
2006-09-29 18:18:39 · answer #1 · answered by Asilos Magdalena 1 · 5⤊ 1⤋
It is truly remarkable how often the Bible speaks of heaven and, yet, how truly little is said about it. In the narratives of the Torah (Creation etc) 'heaven' is nothing more than the vault of the sky and it is only in much later, prophetic, Judaism that we begin to hear mention of an after life. This after life had always been foreign to Israelite thinking until the Greek sophists spread it eastward.
For sure, I am not saying that I do not believe in heaven. What I am saying is that the Bible says so little. One worry that I have is that if heaven is eternal, then we shall be like G-d and, as Genesis tells us, this is not the desire of the Master of the Universe. So we are in a state of confusion and maybe those who use heaven as a defence for their faith ought to find something more concrete to build their spiritual life upon, because (and please take my advice) when tragedy comes, it is our Torah School (Sunday School if you are Christian) images of religion that go first and this includes the picturesque heaven that we have implanted in our heads.
2006-09-30 01:32:44 · answer #2 · answered by Rabbi Yohanneh 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
When someone dies they cease to exist - period. There is no reason to build a myth as to the destination of someone who is dead. There is no destination. Life ceases that is all. We all die, we all cease to exist. The eternity before birth never bothers us nor should the eternity after death. And it wouldn't be nice to lie to a child and say that someone is in heaven. A confrontation with the truth produces more reverence for life than a myth which devalues life.
2006-09-30 01:27:08 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It would be NICE to believe that your child is in heaven, but I'm afraid that to many of us the truth is more important than 'nice'. We deal with it just like a believer does. Does a believer mourn less? Weep less? Remember less? Not at all. We mourn the deaths of loved ones. For you, you prefer to believe they live on in heaven because perhaps the alternative is too painful, and we prefer to be content that they live on in our memories of them and understand that pain is part of life.
2006-09-30 01:25:30 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well, as an atheist who has buried a child, all I can say is that we deal with this as we do everything else in our lives. We look inside OURSELVES for the strength we need to go on, for that is where we find it.
My kids understand that dead is simply that. I'm not going to sugarcoat life for them, sorry. They happen to be kids of strength and character also, and I am confident that they are fine.
2006-09-30 01:45:26 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
"wouldn't it be nice to know that your child is in heaven with God?"
Absolutely yes. It would be nice.
Unfortunately I base my faith on what I believe to be true, not what I want to be true.
Some realities are hard to accept - and that's one - but hiding my head in the sand and saying 'my child hasn't really died' is no solution. There are plenty of coping mechanisms out there, but the curse of atheism is that self-deception cannot be one of them.
2006-09-30 01:24:00 · answer #6 · answered by XYZ 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
It would be nice to know your loved ones aren't really gone forever and are safe in some warm fuzzy cloud land... this is what people in touch with reality call wishful thinking. It doesn't matter how good it feels to believe something is true. There is this thing called reality we all have to deal with and no matter how good it feels you are still deluding yourself. I'm sorry you have to lie to yourself to feel good about life.
2006-09-30 02:55:18 · answer #7 · answered by ChooseRealityPLEASE 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You would just deal the best you can, it's been done. And non believer kids would just be raised with it being a sad fact of life.
2006-09-30 01:22:36 · answer #8 · answered by Indigo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would be nice. But some people can't live on wishful thinking alone. Wouldn't it be ice if you could eat all the cake you wanted and not get fat? Is that all religion is? Wishful thinking?
2006-09-30 01:21:12 · answer #9 · answered by October 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
death simply means that the body is not able to keep on beating and working naturally and independently. death is something thats natural and is gonna happen to everyone at some time in their life most likely in the end of their lifetime.
2006-09-30 01:22:24 · answer #10 · answered by Abel Z 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I would mourn as anyone else would, I would tell them that the person died, I will not lie but perhaps soften it slightly ( I'm not going to go into details if it was something gory)
2006-09-30 01:20:23 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋