Wife just told me about a "couple" which her sister and husband have been friends with for a long time.
"Their" 26 year old son committed suicide last week.

He was in the armed forces, serving in "special forces" for Australia and had done 3 tours of Afghanistan.
He was back in Australia when it happened, but not at home with mum and dad. He was stationed at the base when they found him.

What got my goat was, "mum and dad" got a phone call of the news.
They released the body a week later (kept it for autopsy) to give back to the family for the burial.
So it is approaching 2 weeks, they're burying him on Tuesday, and they still haven't been given any reason at all about the cause of death.
(Other than the fact that it "looks" like suicide.)  Apparently, it's all tied up in govt red tape, hence no answers.

If it was my son, I'd be furious, I'd want some heads to roll.

PS, everytime the son went on duty, mum knew that he couldn't tell them why or where he is going. They understood that part.

Very sad to hear things like this ....just had to share.

I'm so sorry to hear of it. Condolences to you and everyone touched by this young man's passing.

I agree the situation is outrageous, to say the least. They should definitely seek legal counsel, and perhaps go to the media, IMO.

I hope they are able to get some sort of closure, at some point.

Tragic, indeed.

(July 3, 2015 at 4:20 am)ignoramus Wrote: Wife just told me about a "couple" which her sister and husband have been friends with for a long time.
"Their" 26 year old son committed suicide last week.

He was in the armed forces, serving in "special forces" for Australia and had done 3 tours of Afghanistan.
He was back in Australia when it happened, but not at home with mum and dad. He was stationed at the base when they found him.

What got my goat was, "mum and dad" got a phone call of the news.
They released the body a week later (kept it for autopsy) to give back to the family for the burial.
So it is approaching 2 weeks, they're burying him on Tuesday, and they still haven't been given any reason at all about the cause of death.
(Other than the fact that it "looks" like suicide.)  Apparently, it's all tied up in govt red tape, hence no answers.

If it was my son, I'd be furious, I'd want some heads to roll.

PS, everytime the son went on duty, mum knew that he couldn't tell them why or where he is going. They understood that part.

Very sad to hear things like this ....just had to share.

For all the talk of rationality, intellectual honesty, and objectivity we engage in as atheists, this is one of the most uncomfortable questions we have to wrestle with. What can we offer as a substitute for the emotional comfort religion offers believers in facing their own death, or that of their loved ones? Almost everything is cold comfort.

Processing a horrific experience like the loss of a loved one using rationality and logic does help when you're trying to make sense of things, but not as much during those times you're feeling helpless and emotionally vulnerable. I can see how believing in god can help there. It's often said that religion was created by humans as a means to cope with their own mortality -- a powerful defense mechanism that arose from an irresolvable conflict almost unique to humans: having the same instinct of self-preservation that insects have when they run for their lives sensing they are about to be stomped upon, yet simultaneously harboring a central nervous system advanced enough to comprehend the reality that we will all die one day. 

Well, no one has reported back from the other side, none of us who are alive have been to the other side, and we don't have any factual evidence supporting a life (as we know it) after we die. To me, believing what I want to be true can be very comforting (like my unshakeable belief that Jessica Alba wants all my babies), but that doesn't make it true. I find more comfort in what I know to be true. For the things I don't know, I prefer saying just that -- I don't know -- instead of entertaining supernatural guesses or made-up answers from a time when humans didn't know about the carbon cycle or the structure of the DNA that your father passed on to you, his living, breathing son.

Admitting ignorance is humbling. It reminds us that as fleeting inhabitants of this vast universe, we are part of something much bigger. It forms a foundation for the curiosity that defines us as human beings, that drives us to contemplate our existence, educate ourselves, and to grow and evolve as individuals and as a species.To lose that is a much worse death than physical death.

I wish you the strength and resolve to cope with your loss. Mourn his death, but also celebrate the life that he helped give you. That's what he would have wanted.

I personally did not know the son.
His parents are family friends only. No condolences please.

Can we write this off as another casualty of "religion"?
Thanks again God, yeah, we know, mysterious ways and all...go fuck yourself!

That's awful.....The poor parents