Difference between revisions of "Atheism and grief"
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Hensler is an atheist, so when people described her three-month-old son Jude as being an angel, or part of God's plan, or "in a better place" than in his mother's arms, the pain sometimes overwhelmed her.<ref>[Grief without God is a challenge for nonbelievers]</ref>}} | Hensler is an atheist, so when people described her three-month-old son Jude as being an angel, or part of God's plan, or "in a better place" than in his mother's arms, the pain sometimes overwhelmed her.<ref>[Grief without God is a challenge for nonbelievers]</ref>}} | ||
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| + | == Atheism, grief and tragedies == | ||
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[[File:Dennis Prager.jpg|200px|left|thumbnail|[[Dennis Prager]] ]] | [[File:Dennis Prager.jpg|200px|left|thumbnail|[[Dennis Prager]] ]] | ||
[[Dennis Prager]] wrote: | [[Dennis Prager]] wrote: | ||
Revision as of 02:50, September 29, 2016
USA Today reported about atheism and grief:
| “ | When Rebecca Hensler's infant son died in 2009, she received numerous condolences from friends, colleagues and even total strangers she met online.
Rebecca Hensler started a support group for grieving atheists to help them deal with loss and death without religion. Rebecca Hensler started a support group for grieving atheists to help them deal with loss and death without religion. Rebecca Hensler started a support group for grieving atheists to help them deal with loss and death without religion. She knew their intentions were good, but their words weren't always helpful. And in the rawness of her grief, Hensler found some of them downright hurtful. Hensler is an atheist, so when people described her three-month-old son Jude as being an angel, or part of God's plan, or "in a better place" than in his mother's arms, the pain sometimes overwhelmed her.[2] |
” |
Atheism, grief and tragedies
Dennis Prager wrote:
| “ | ast week the New York Times published an opinion piece that offered atheism’s response to the evil/tragedy in which 20 children and six adults were murdered at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut. What prompted Susan Jacoby to write her piece was a colleague telling her that atheism “has nothing to offer when people are suffering.”...
“The dead do not suffer” is atheism’s consolation to the parents of murdered children? This sentiment can provide some consolation — though still nothing comparable to the affirmation of an afterlife — to those who lose a loved one who had been suffering from a debilitating disease. But it not only offers the parents of Sandy Hook no consolation, it actually (unintentionally) insults them: Were these children suffering before their lives were taken? Would they have suffered if they had lived on? Moreover, it is the parents who are suffering, so the fact that their child isn’t suffering while decomposing in the grave is of no relevance. And, most germane to our subject, this atheist message offers no consolation at all when compared with the religious message that we humans are not just matter, but possess eternal souls.[3] |
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See also
Notes
- ↑ Fear of death: worst if you’re a little religious?, World of Science]
- J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2005, Jul;60(4):P207-14. Does religiousness buffer against the fear of death and dying in late adulthood? Findings from a longitudinal study. Wink P1, Scott J.
- ↑ [Grief without God is a challenge for nonbelievers]
- ↑ The Atheist Response to Sandy Hook
