Your right Boomer…
“Modern industrial society does not deal well with the death of loved ones.”
Apart from the usual platitudes … people seem to think its somehow wrong to speak about the recently dead … whereas its the one thing the bereaved seem to actually need.
One of my pet hates is the use of bland language. Here people say a person has ‘passed away’. Another popular euphemism is “gone to a better place” . I don’t mind ‘at peace’ so much if a person has suffered with some vile disease for months or even years.
It is my practice to say a person has died or is dead. I’m unconvinced euphemisms should be used to ‘protect the children’.It is my observation that young children often handle death better than the adults around them . Children understand loss and finality.
My ethnicity Irish.We have wakes. After the funeral there is gathering at a selected house.Lots of food and even more alcohol. People sit around eating and getting shitfaced whilst telling anecdotes about the deceased. There is a lot of laughter,and sometimes a bit of mild violence. IE seldom any blood.
I have a black suit,which I wear at weddings,funerals and christenings.In recent years,very few weddings and lots of funerals.That goes with getting older. The last funeral I went to elicited the unworthy thought “I’m glad it’s not me”
first of all, death bed isn’t offered by religion, because in past centuries before the religion is created up by humans I am sure people are aware that death in the end of life circle. no one actually know what happens after death.
if people come to understand the truth that there is only one life and no after, they will be more peaceful because no punishment by gods for stupid smallest sins that prevent them from living their life’s to the fullest. If they know this simple truth then waking up everyday will be another hope to do what you like or love on this earth. of course we cant beat solace of death if someone we love die, but we can be happy to know that they are in peaceful place and no one will punish them or make the, suffer even after death.
Unfortunately, that claim may not be reasonably made.
So far, nobody knows what happens when we die. No body has been able to prove there is or is not a god, a soul, heaven,hell etc.
I can say I’m reasonably confident that suicide bombers probably are not given 72 virgins as a reward in paradise. IMO,such a belief reveals a disgustingly misogynistic world view together an emotional depth of about 14.
All I can say is I don’t believe .I’m unable to say ‘I know’ because nobody knows for sure on way or t’other."
I live my life based on my senses and evidence. I know I have X amount of years allocated to this body, and that I interact with many people. There is zero evidence of an afterlife or a god, so I live my life based on reality, and attempt to squeeze in as many happy minutes as possible, and enjoy the company of those around me.
And I have to say, it’s pretty darn good living this way.
RE: Dying as an atheist - how can we offer alternative to what religion offers?
Once you remove the cancer, what are you going to replace it with?
I just accept that I will die. I hope it will be quick and painless as possible. In the mean time, I have too much to do to worry about a heaven or hell or afterlife or prayers to invisible support systems or how much money I am going to leave the Church. I have a life to live.
While it is very “accurate” to say we do not know. I think for something like death, it is fair to examine what is known and make the conclusion:
What happens when we die? We die.
And we operate on that assumption, it is very well supported, the only one that has any actual testable evidence.
I am obviously a computer nerd, and we are all using computers (of some sort) right now to read these boards.
If i were to take some pictures on my phone, and not back them up in any way, then toss my phone into an active lava flow. Have those pictures “moved to a better place?” Is there a possibility those pictures (and everything else on that phone that was not backed up) survived somehow, just in a different state?
No, of course not. Those pictures are gone. That phone is no longer a phone. I think it is nothing more then pure hubris of humanity to expect somehow they are an exception to this simple reality. That such thought of afterlife of a person after brain death should not be entertained in any serious way.
I take it a step further: such thought of a possible “afterlife” can actually be harmful/detrimental when people start organizing their life around this supposed completely unevidenced and frankly ridiculous notion of afterlife, with many people operating as such, even if they agree it is only an incredibly remote possibility that goes against everything we know to be true. There is even a saying for it: “nothing in life is a certain as death.”
We atheist see this regularly as religion uses this lie to control people. How do you convince a bunch of farmers to march off to war with almost inevitable misery and likely death? Tell them there is a paradise waiting for them in afterlife if they are good little rule followers, but hell waiting for them if they desert.
Yes, the only thing I know of that is certain. I am reasonably confident I know what will happen after I die. Nothing, I will cease to exist with the death of my brain.The little microbes will begin devouring my corpse. They too will all die when my corpse is cremated. BUT I am unable to claim that I KNOW what happens to me the person after my brain has died.
For all I know, there may be a god, or many,many gods, each with the same indifference about human beings. OR it may be their pleasure to watch humanity suffer, or creating suffering whenever they can.
I demand empirical evidence one way or t’other. (have a look at Russell’s Teapot)
In the meantime, it’s semantics. I live my life AS IF there are no gods.
I also still contend that organised religion is the greatest confidence trick ever perpetrated on the human race .
Strongly agree there.
Agreed.
A con job built on hundreds of years of trial and error to learn the relevant pshychological tricks (fear, ego) to control the masses.
Yair.
If you are not familiar I recommend having a look at Bishop John Shelby Spong. Lots of stuff on YouTube and he’s written heaps of book.
A short example below:
I really like that, in guessing it’s a rough translation from Latin.
If I could chose what happens to my body, I’d want it to be shot into space in a durable coffin, even though my life’s journey ended, It can carry on after I’m gone, in a way?
Welcome to AR from Sunny South Australia, where it is winter and raining heavily
Not sure. Greek wast the lingua franca of ancient Rome,so it might have been in Greek. I don’t speak or read Greek and my Latin is very rusty. I suspect it’s very pithy in Latin too…
In English from an eighteenth century gravestone:
“Spare a thought as you pass by,
As you are now so once was I
As I am now you soon will be
So prepare yourself to follow me”
I came across that in my 20’s. It didn’t really resonate. At 72, the passing of a year now feels like the passing of a month, so I take notice.
PS: My will states that my body is to be cremated and the ashes scattered. I have always had an irrational fear of being buried alive.
My sister in law was a funeral director. I once told her of my fear. Her response; “Don’t worry about it. If you ain’t dead when we get you, you bloody well are when we’ve finished with you”
Ohhhh love this one…
I’m not having a grave stone BUT if I did, this got me thinking 
. Keeping to my “character” something like…
“Who the fuck are you
Wondering who the fuck was I?
Great idea for a new thread. Atheist Epitaphs.
What happens when we die? We die.
EXACTLY. that is the only answer to whoever thinking about after death.
Indeed.
“The meaning of life is that it stops” Franz Kafka
Yet he also wrote "“I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.”
― Franz Kafka
–and yes,I’ve been there. The first time I was 20. The last time so far was at age 63.
To be perhaps too sentimental; that which makes me the happiest is to love and to feel loved.
Heart stops, brain is starved of oxygen, and then dies. No brain no consciousness. After that decomposition, unless the remains are cremated.
The good news is that we won’t be able to experience any of it after our brain dies. I’m far more concerned with the manner in which I will die, than death itself. That appointment is booked the minute you’re born.
We don’t need an alternative. When you’re dead, you don’t know you’re dead, it’s only hard for other people.
The sooner people get over the idea of needing some kind of something to look forward to, the better.
I wouldn’t hold my breath. By that I mean that human beings have wanted and needed some kind of spiritual beliefs since before recorded history (going by archaeology).
It is we atheists who are in the minority. The great majority of humans are believers of some kind.
It is my position that this is only so because religion meets some important human needs. Seems to me it’s no coincidence that highest levels of religiosity are found among the poor and uneducated. That as a society develops and becomes more affluent it becomes more secular. In such societies ,the most devout tend to be found among the poorest segments in that society. (EG the US bible belt)
My perception is based on what I see as a clear correlation, which is not proof.