(April 12, 2012 at 5:50 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:(April 12, 2012 at 5:38 pm)SophiaGrace Wrote: I understand that people might make this up to comfort themselves, because they miss the people who've passed on but it makes no logical sense otherwise.While I understand this sentiment from a non-theistic perspective, I'd be more concerned about comforting the family within their own Christian frame of reference. What I mean is this. Even if you think their beliefs are utter nonsense, it's not a teachable moment.
Agreed. Also, there's not much point making logical arguments against these people's beliefs if they don't understand logic (and just as importantly - bad logic). This is basically the case with my parents. They don't understand why the reasons they believe X are faulty, but pointing out said bad reasoning gets me nowhere if they don't understand why it's bad. So I usually just stay silent when they say something like that (thankfully they're not religious). This isn't a resignation that they'll never understand, but merely an acknowledgement that there's a lot of groundwork that needs to be laid before saying "there's no evidence this kid even went to heaven" and getting a reasonable response. In my case I simply can't be bothered laying that groundwork since I have better things to do.
