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As you sould have observed from my other answers I would tell the theist I'm an atheist

WOW! You really are ignorant! It's not how you treat grieving religious people - it's how treat people who are grieving period! Even You! If your best-friend died and you were having whatever it is you do and I was there, I would not come to you and say "Let's pray for their soul" out of respect for you and the deceased person and your beliefs. Again - it's a respect issue! There's a time and a place for religious debate and when someone is already grieving, that is not the time! And why in the hell would you want to upset someone further? You need to find better thing to do with your time, other than trying to figure out how to upset people further at some of their lowest times!

If I was having a close conversation with someone I knew who was grieving, more than likely they already know I'm an atheist and that I'm there for them. I'm not going to say "they're in a better place", but I might mention they aren't in pain any more. Or that I'm there for the person.

If it's a complete stranger, I would just offer my condolences, but it's a bit arrogant at a time like that to be "I'm an atheist, and I don't believe in Heaven!"

The person is already dealing with enough at the moment. I'll say the same thing I would to someone who knows I'm an atheist. "You're in my thoughts, the person is no longer in pain (if ill), you have my condolences and sympathy". I won't pretend to be a believer, but if they bring up heaven I'll most likely just smile and nod, to me that's not the place to bring that kind of thing up.

A grieving person needs to get the hurt of their chest, and is often seeking reassurance. You can be supportive, without being callous about the differences in your beliefs.

We already have enough people out there pretending to be christian so why would i add to the myth . I would tell the person only the truth about what ever it is they are grieving over i wont tell them that someone up in a fictional whole in the sky is going to make it better for them . I will tell them that they are the only ones that can decide how long to mourn , but if it becomes to hard to get over then they may need professional help not mythical help

There would have to be a difference from an insulted person from a non-insulted person from the true atheist's perspective.

As we all know, it is impossible to insult infants with words and therefore, it is the value that the hearer places on those words allows the hearer to choose to take offense. As blacks can use the "n" word to mean friend but whites can't means that it is the color of the skin of the speaker that determines whether the hearer will choose to take offense or not....as it is the skin color and not the word that determines how the hearer chooses to respond.

Therefore, without determining if the speaker is prejudice or not, one can determine that the hearer who chooses to interpret the word as both "friend" and "enemy" based off of skin color IS prejudice.

And, on the whole, blacks who lived in the 50s are much more tolerant of whites still using the word who also lived in the 50s because the culture hadn't banned only whites from using the word. So as the US had water fountains and bathrooms blacks couldn't use, the US now has words whites can't use but blacks can.

Therefore, as it is impossible for the speaker to control the value the listener will place on their words, so it is impossible for the speaker to prevent the listener from being offended.

To say atheists should treat grieving religious people differently is not to understand true atheism. To the true atheist, there are no moral rules of conduct as those who only do right and those who only do wrong conclude at exactly the same place. Therefore, it is pointless to and impossible differentiate right from wrong and atheists can prove it.

Dust = Life = Dust

Just as it is impossible for one intelligent thought to have gone into designing humans without proving the theist's position, so it is impossible for the atheist to conclude anywhere but exactly where life began. As the amoral doctor above says, ""Nothing is ever destroyed, and nothing ever completely ends....it simply changes from one form to another""

And since there was no life when the earth/universe was just a piece of our sun, then it is impossible for the true atheist to believe life on earth evolved to be more value than the dust is came from or will return. Nor is it possible to prove global warming as the earth has obviously cooled and difference in green house gases aren't keeping the core from further cooling.

( dust < life > dust is impossible)

Therefore, true atheists know the real value of life = dust. So the grieving religious person is just as worthless as the non-grieving religious person and to change ones response over nothing is absurd.

Seriously, to the atheist, life is like water that freezes and then thaws.

Or life is like the sandcastle one builds in front of the incoming waves of time. A couple of waves and there is NO evidence of the sandcastle's existence regardless of how big or small.

To the true atheist, the is absolutely no reason to get out of bed as nothing will change regardless of what is done.

The only way for a change to occur is if there are two conclusions...like a heaven and a hell.

The only way to know which path leads to heaven and which leads to hell would require a knowledge of what a person was created to do. Without knowing why one was created would mean all people would go to hell as there are billions of wrong answers and one right answer for each moment of the day for many days.

However, it is mad to assume that a Creator would make something for no reason. Whatever reason the Creator wanted humanity to be is the reason we exist.

It is absurd to think the Creator would make us for a reason and then not enable it to do what it was created to do in the first place. Why would someone make a vacuum cleaner and not want it to do what it was created to do? Why would God make us and not want us to do what we were made to do?

Our having eyes, ears, a mouth and brain are evidence that if we had a Creator, our Creator could communicate with us. And if we were created with a free will like children instead of machines, then it could be our failure to see and listen and not God's failure to speak and act that is the problem.

But no, there is no reason to console a grieving Christian or pretend to be a Christian as there is nothing in an atheist's belief to warrant such responses.

But a Christian being upset that an atheist would go to hell is a logical conclusion as is grieving that they lost the companionship of a loved one at the same time the loved on is in a better place.

1graftedin

Being an Atheist is nothing to be ashamed of. IJR will not comprise his identity as an Atheist for any Christian. You can be an Atheist and still be kind , comforting and gentle with a believer. IJR would say he remembers fondly the times IJR and the recently departed spent together, and that he will always be remembered. One thing IJR will not do is pray, or tell the grieving that IJR will pray for them. That would be hypocritical. IJR will also not make a big deal at the funeral about prayer, and will remain silent at the proper times. It is possible to be true to yourself without being a jerk or an insensitive clod.

Well...Atheists are rather good people, very empathetic in situations like that...I would take the person by the hand and lead them in prayer...just because I think prayer is worthless does not mean I don't understand how meaningful it can be to someone else.

Now a christian on the other hand, I have heard of christians going into a children's cancer ward and telling the kids with days or weeks left to live that they need to give their life to jesus or they will soon be burning in hell with Satan.

And my father, on his death bed, had to scream profanities at the hospital preacher because the self righteous pig kept telling him "your gonna be in hell for eternity if you don't get right with jesus"...my dad told him to get out and the preacher said it again...my dad yelled "get out" and the self serving pig preacher said "I know you are in pain sir, but do you realize the pain of eternity in hell will be 1000 times worse?"

My dad just about came out of the bed yelling and cursing and threatening to kill the guy...the nurse had to physically pull the preacher out of the room. I arrived about 30 minutes later and my dad was still quite upset...he died within the hour and the doctor told me that him getting so upset hastened his death.

Long story short...I threatened to sue the hospital and they waived a $15,000 charge that insurance did not cover...and they fired the cold hearted evil christian preacher.

Yes and having been forced to attend religious ceremonies for religious reasons I find the manner of officiating used by the pulpit parasites infuriating and offensive and in my experience lacking all relation to the life of the person who died, I would draw the line at criticism at that particular time but at no other

If I was talking to a grieving person, why would my atheism come up at all?

Unless of course they wanted me to tell them that I thought their loved one had gone to a better place....I won't lie in that instance. But I could still comfort them in my own way and say something like "Nothing is ever destroyed, and nothing ever completely ends....it simply changes from one form to another"

Someone said that to me once, and it was one of the most comforting things I've ever heard.

Well, only if it was in an appropriate context. I wouldn't be looking to go out of my way to make some sort of dramatic announcement about it.

I wouldn't pretend to be a Christian; I'm not deceptive and I'm not a liar. I just wouldn't say anything that I thought would lead to an argument on the issue.

I have NEVER been insulted by "the mere mention of atheism", as you so preciously put it. In fact I was an atheist for almost ten years.

But what you're suggesting in your previous questions is that atheists should have the license to act like heartless jerks, which they don't, and never will.

I respect many atheists on this board. Guess who's no longer counted among them? (Hint: for reasons that have nothing to do with their lack of religious belief.)