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What would you as an atheist or non-believer tell the parents of the children/fa
For instance, your there trying to encourage that individual and they say "I will see my daughter in Heaven". That would then lead you to believe that they believe in God. What would your response be. Also, what if they knew you were an atheist....and you had to be blunt with them on their son or daughter. Does this perspective give you a clue on what it is now that your proposing to believe in. A lot of yall call it false hope. Would you still call it false hope at a time like this? Would you tell them that if you had to be completely honest and blunt with them on your perspective. I really am curious to hear your response.
I am not an atheist, but neither a theist. I am a pantheist.
If someone were to use their own religion to console themselves over a dead loved one, I would say something to the effect of, "If you loved them so, their time together with you was surely not lived in vain."
I wouldn't try and invalidate their beliefs. If they were looking for me to contribute to consoling them, I would supplement their belief of comfort with my belief of comfort, my belief being they should not regret a death if the life before the death was not lived in vain.
Now, if they cannot take comfort in that because they expect me to be Christian and share a belief exactly the same or similar to theirs, then that is their fault. Not mine.
I'm sure no one, as well as yourself would in any way disrespect them or show any type of discourtesy at a time like this. However, do you believe that they will see their children one day? I'm not too familiar with pantheist? What drew you to become a pantheist?
However, do you believe that they will see their children one day?
I am not sure. What happens when you die is not something my faith addresses. Pantheism addresses the problems with living, not the literal answers of dying. So, I'm not going to pretend to them that I know what happened to their child now. I can only proclaim that they mustn't mourn or regret if they knew the child lived their life happily.
I'm not too familiar with pantheist?
It's the worship of life, love, and living in general. It's not about guessing answers to the unknown or creating mythologies to explain what is irrelevant to right now. It's about caring about right now, and not worrying about what is not within our human knowledge to understand.
What drew you to become a pantheist?
I've always been a Pantheist. I just didn't know I was for the longest time.
For a large portion of my life, I wasn't sure if I was an atheist, or an agnostic, or a Buddhist, or a Christian, or what. But, I never went out of my way to try and constantly figure out which I was. All I did was wonder about it, while I focused on other things, such as loving and living.
Then, when I heard of pantheism, I immediately had the realization that pantheism is exactly what I've always been, I just never knew the term for it until then.
EDIT: I didn't know why you wrote your reply as a disputation, so I accidentally wrote mine as disputation even though I should have marked it as clarification. My apologies. I have a slow mind.
No, we do not really have a composed holy scripture. Our 'holy words' are the words of variously-affiliated philosophers and wise men which correlate with our ideals. For the most part, we haven't historically been an organized philosophy/religion until the modern age, because we haven't been able to connect together and communicate in a group until now.
Simply offer my condolences for their loss; no reason to kick someone while they're down.
Now, if they specifically asked me for my thoughts, and were willing to engage in such discourse, I suppose I'd indulge them.
My opinion is that it really doesn't (or shouldn't) matter what your religious stance is on the afterlife. Losing a loved one hurts; a lot.
Let's examine why this is.
Firstly, it's not because you feel sorry for the deceased. If you believe they truly are "in a better place," then why should you. And if you believe they simply no longer exist as a conscious entity, the same applies. In either case, they cannot be said to be unhappy or suffering in any way.
The pain is because, irrespective of your beliefs concerning the afterlife, you still have to endure the rest of this life without them. That's what hurts. It's not that they won't get to experience certain things in life; it's that you won't get to experience them experiencing these things. The interaction with them is gone, and the hole it leaves is significant.
Believing you'll be reunited in the afterlife certainly has to offer some comfort; because it means the pain you feel in this life is only temporary. The same, however, is also true in an atheistic view. In either case, the pain is only temporary.
But it still hurts, and you don't have to share the same religious beliefs to have empathy for someone in pain.
Would you agree that they would see their child again?
If they were asking me for my honest opinion, the best I could say is "maybe."
Obviously ,it isn't a known fact one way or the other; but it's been my experience that whenever something sounds a little too good to be true, it's usually because it is.
As such, I'm a bit skeptical when it comes to the grandiose promises of infinite paradise some religions tend to make concerning the afterlife.
I don't know them. I don't know what they believe. All i do know is that they just went though one of the worst tradgies possible for a parent, or sibling, to go through. There are people who are going to be supportive because they know and care for those family members, but i would not want to be one of those people who walk up to grieving strangers and tell them it's going to be all right, or something similar, because that would be making light of the fact that i do not know what they are going through.
Let their family and loved ones help console them and give them their space.
I am Catholic, so I do believe they will see their kids again.
However, it won't be the same. I don't know what heaven is like, but as wonderful as it may be, those parents will not see their children grow up and see what they would have accomplished with their lives. I imagine that must be the hardest part.
i see. i def agree. I can't imagine what those families are going through right now. i just see it as theres so many atheist/non-believers on her and i would like to see their perspective. im curious to see what they would tell a parent or family member that was affected by this tragedy
Wow! At least you were blunt, but that in itself is a statement that one with no hope would only make. Without being sarcastic, where do you put your hope in as far as life in general? Or do you not even have hope?
So these parents are weak and are hiding behind idiotic fairy tale????? Thats basically what your saying. And reality??? Did you know that even scientist don't know what actual reality is....The have definitions and opinions but not even all of them can agree on what true reality is. Ok, so these are scientist that are smarter than you and I, but yet what you percieve as reality might not actually match up to what they'll say reality is. SAME WITH ME.....so who's to say that your truth is the actual truth? Nobody but yourself.
not necessarily your proof, but what you believe. Which im sure you have some sort of proof or explanation behind what you believe. So what if someone who is also an atheist or non-believer says your proof/believe is wrong to a certain degree
There have been wars in the 1800's that neither me or you were at. Yet, we both believe that they happened based off of people who wrote about them and evidence we have from those researchers. The same researchers have also reported evidence from the bible based off of scrolls and other artifacts proving that such people that were stated in the bible were actually true. So there is backing. My truth says that your truth is false, your truth says that my truth is a lie. If we go off of evidence it still isn't enought to prove who is actually right due to the fact that there is so many unanswered questions that you and even science still have.
Could you give proof of everything you've ever stated? You simply go off of proof that only man has created. So in all reality your putting your trust and believes in man! Yes I'll give credit where credit is due, but to rely on then alone is what I wont do. You believe what you can only see and what is shown to you by someone or something, that's all it takes for you to believe. Even you know that there can always be something that is more than what the eye can see.
What we known is based on observation and experiments. It's a result of many smart and dedicated people. Well tested and used in real world,
Gods are based on thousands of very inaccurate fairy tales which produces tens of thousands of gods. Idea of gods coming from illiterate and often mentally insane people trying to explain rainbow, thunder, diseases by magic.
Ok thank you, now I'm clear that you do rely on smart and dedicated people (no sarcasm). That's your source and the origin of where you beliefs come from. With that being said, they are still "people", well educated and creditable people, but still human nonetheless, just like you and me. I put my trust and choose to rely on God who is greater. "People" will let you down, even the smartest nicest people. Why? Because we're not perfect. God is perfect and just. And yes although he is all powerful he still wants a relationship with everyone one of us. Do you honestly think those very same people where you get your evidence from would want to get to know you? No.....of course I'm not 100% sure, but I'm positive that they could live the rest of their lives without ever talking to you and be fine. Where as God is just there waiting for you to call on him. Now, he wont force you. Reason I say all this is to point out that yes he's greater and is this all knowing God, but he still wants a relationship with everyone of us. This very well might mean absolutely nothing to you, but whether you believe it or not, at least you were told today that God does care and he simply wants you to know that. Technically, just bc you now know or have read something doesn't mean you'll believe it, but you did however read it, so at the very minimum you do now "know"
Science produces many different interpretations as well. That is why certain scientist can't agree with other scientist. You say religion produces 1,000's of fairy tales meaning that there's so many religions, which one is really true.....especially when we, according to you, don't have any solid proof or evidence. Yet, the people you base your knowledge on have PROOF yet still cannot agree???
Of course you wouldn't tell them. I don't think anybody would, but man just knowing that your perspective absolutely crushes what they'll hope for every day to keep them going is crazy to me.
The universe doesnt owe them hope. If they want to carry on their delusion that's fine. Doesnt mean I will too. I don't need fairytales and false hope to keep me going. I just look around at the world and don't want to leave it.
