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I have expressed my opinion more then once in this forum that the problem of illness and death is one of the most difficult challenges for atheism.
I'm speaking in general not only in this particular case of confronting children with death.
One of the most powerfull tools of religions is to give confort to people in distress by saying that's all God's will and He knows what he is doing.For people going to die the religion brings hope of life after death .
I have not found in RD's book a solution of how to tackle with this problem nor have members of this forum came up with a practical solution.
Atheism cannot by any means promise life after death being convinced that death brings a total anihilation of the person who will in time also be forgotten.
The only problem which could be answered by atheism is by explaining the eternal question of people in distress "Why me?"
The answer is (true a little bit difficult for children no understand) that Nature is governed by laws which have most of them ,if not all them,this double aspect of causality and chance.
We humans are a part of Nature and therefore what happens to us in not a result of the will of any God or a result of an unwritten Destiny but a result of a multitude of natural phenomenon partly causal and partly by sheer chance.
It does not help a bit to rely on any God or to think fatalistic of any Destiny in store for us because they most simple do'nt exist.
With a bit of pedagogial skill any parent shuold be able to explains that.Children are not often more intelligent then we use to think of them.
Of course there is this aspect of social stress of your family or your community,against your atheistic views,but nothing doing, it's a matter of spiritual strength if you have choose this way of thinking and you are dtremined to put it in practice
Quote:quote='Madscientist' pid='17078' dateline='1242357817']
Hello all.
A beloved aunt of mine died recently, and it brought up some problems that bug me quite a lot.
the fact is that this person was mentally impaired, and i was the one who took care of her. She was somewhat autonomous and lived in her own appartments in the basement of my house, along with her companion and her brother, both of wich are also mentally impaired.
Fact is that those people where really close to my childrens, and i don't really know how to make them understand what happenned.
I have expressed my opinion more then once in this forum that the problem of illness and death is one of the most difficult challenges for atheism.
I'm speaking in general not only in this particular case of confronting children with death.
One of the most powerfull tools of religions is to give confort to people in distress by saying that's all God's will and He knows what he is doing.For people going to die the religion brings hope of life after death .
I have not found in RD's book a solution of how to tackle with this problem nor have members of this forum came up with a practical solution.
Atheism cannot by any means promise life after death being convinced that death brings a total anihilation of the person who will in time also be forgotten.
The only problem which could be answered by atheism is by explaining the eternal question of people in distress "Why me?"
The answer is (true a little bit difficult for children no understand) that Nature is governed by laws which have most of them ,if not all them,this double aspect of causality and chance.
We humans are a part of Nature and therefore what happens to us in not a result of the will of any God or a result of an unwritten Destiny but a result of a multitude of natural phenomenon partly causal and partly by sheer chance.
It does not help a bit to rely on any God or to think fatalistic of any Destiny in store for us because they most simple do'nt exist.
With a bit of pedagogial skill any parent shuold be able to explains that.Children are not often more intelligent then we use to think of them.
Of course there is this aspect of social stress of your family or your community,against your atheistic views,but nothing doing, it's a matter of spiritual strength if you have choose this way of thinking and you are dtremined to put it in practice
