Death and atheism - something I've struggled with

[Minimalist]

The shitty part of atheism is realizing nobody is protecting you, we are on our own

OTOH, there is no vigilant sky-daddy with a clip board writing down our "sins", either. I'll make the trade.

[iameatingjam]

Exactly! That's what I meant to say in the following sentences.

[Ike963]

What are some ways that you cope and deal with the pain of losing a loved one, as atheists?

I acknowledge my feelings of grief, express them, and I think comforting things, about how my loved one will never know pain or strife again. They want for nothing now, and their molecules will go on to support more life. Through the law of the conservation of mater, everything that my loved one consisted of is still here, and will be until the end of time (if there is an end). I take comfort in knowing we are made of the stuff of stars. I take comfort in knowing, one day, I too will enter an eternal dreamless sleep, aware of nothing, just as it is when you have a dreamless sleep. My body will still exist as matter, and through the laws of conservation of matter, I am made immortal, just like my loved one, just like your loved one, just like everyone else. And we will go on traversing this incredible galaxy, just as we have, and just as we will continue to do.

[Norfolk And Chance]

So anyway, if there was a heaven, what if you were married three times? Which wife would you end up with? The most religious one, maybe? Whoop de fucking doo.

[Cinjin]

What are some ways that you cope and deal with the pain of losing a loved one, as atheists?

These comfort questions are easy for any non-believer.
1. Embrace your sadness. In time it will pass gently on it's way.
2. Remind yourself that life with no end would be horrific. We weren't meant to live with our parents or our children for all eternity. Imagine 100 trillion years with your father or your son, and knowing that 100 trillion more will add nothing to your heaps of useless forgotten memories. What an empty existence.

Death makes life beautiful. Ironically, it's the end that makes the journey such a sweet memory. The same will go for you, when it's your time.

[Jackalope]

I remind myself that while they are no longer living, that they don't face the arbitrary judgment of a jealous god, either.

As an aside, I note that coping with other's death is far more difficult than facing my own. I find that odd.

[Creed of Heresy]

"Death. Death never changes."

Get outta here, Ron Perlman!

I've lost quite a few people in my life and as a result I'm rather hardened to it. I haven't lost anyone VERY close to me recently but it's something I still have some coping abilities with all the same, and I know that at some point in the future I'll have to call on them again. Death never changes- Sorry. Been playing Fallout too much lately...

Still, I used to believe in god and all that, and nowadays I am an atheist so...whatever coping mechanism came before, well, it's gone now, so...who knows, maybe the next death I experience will be as jarring as the first one was all over again.

But I doubt it.