Welcome aboard, I look forward to reading what you may want to share with us.
If I could just address the question you posed, regarding how an atheist deals with the loss of a loved one: there are a number of us here, myself included, who have experienced just such a loss. As far as I'm concerned, I would be among the first to wish that the comforting promises of religious faith were true and I can absolutely see how religions that make these promises can be overwhelmingly attractive. Since I don't share those beliefs, not least because the people who make claims about them are in no better position to do so than I am, the only resources to which I can turn are myself, as in my inner strengths, and friends/family who love me enough to want to support me. That I find beautiful and much more helpful, inasmuch as anything can be, than pious platitudes however well-intentioned. However, should a person find such things helpful to them, I wouldn't seek to take away that support. It's not like I stand outside funerals pointing and laughing or anything - not in this weather, anyway. My dream, as Baalzebutt already expressed, is that one day we as a society no longer need to rely on what I regard as fairytale sugar to help the medicine go down.
If I could just address the question you posed, regarding how an atheist deals with the loss of a loved one: there are a number of us here, myself included, who have experienced just such a loss. As far as I'm concerned, I would be among the first to wish that the comforting promises of religious faith were true and I can absolutely see how religions that make these promises can be overwhelmingly attractive. Since I don't share those beliefs, not least because the people who make claims about them are in no better position to do so than I am, the only resources to which I can turn are myself, as in my inner strengths, and friends/family who love me enough to want to support me. That I find beautiful and much more helpful, inasmuch as anything can be, than pious platitudes however well-intentioned. However, should a person find such things helpful to them, I wouldn't seek to take away that support. It's not like I stand outside funerals pointing and laughing or anything - not in this weather, anyway. My dream, as Baalzebutt already expressed, is that one day we as a society no longer need to rely on what I regard as fairytale sugar to help the medicine go down.
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.'
