RE: Atheists' Dilemma
October 10, 2011 at 11:32 am
(This post was last modified: October 10, 2011 at 11:33 am by Cyberman.)
Trust me, I can sympathise with your loss, chris. It's been my experience that people are at a loss to know what to say to someone in such a position, often out of discomfort or a desire not to say the wrong thing, so they tend to default to the religious platitudes as a form of shorthand. Then there are the ones who truly do believe, or at least want you to believe they believe, that the apparent reassurances of their faith represent reality. I don't know where you're speaking from, but it's not so much of a problem here in the UK; we do have our share of proselytising arseholes, however ordinary people generally seem to be more respectful, or at least tolerant, of atheists. The few times I have had someone bless me or say they'll pray for me or whatever, I've simply responded - politely - that, though I fully appreciate that they mean well, could they please not insult me nor belittle my loss with what I consider to be an inappropriate subject.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
