I am now one seriously conflicted Atheist.. Help???

[dimaniac]

Expect chain of coincidences in near future. God is communicating with you. That's how I became a theist

[Whateverist]

So you're an atheist. Are you also a skeptic? Does it puzzle you to experience a little synchronicity every now and then? Skeptics who assume the answers they already have are sufficient to explain every coincidence that may arise go too far. Dreams aren't completely well understood. I think you may interpret this any way that seems right to you. Does it make you question your lack of belief in gods?

[Thackerie]

Expect chain of coincidences in near future. God is communicating with you. That's how I became a theist

That sounds like something I would have said when I was a young teen who was fascinated by the idea of synchronicity.

[Alex K]

Expect chain of coincidences in near future. God is communicating with you. That's how I became a theist

Jesus on a cracker! stop messing with people's paranoia in times of crisis to peddle your BS.

[Manowar]

What difference is it that you had a dream about your Father one month exactly after his death, supposed it was 2 months to the day or 6 months. It is just a coincidence nothing more IMO

manowar

[LostLocke]

Expect chain of coincidences in near future. God is communicating with you. The Island has a reason.

Fixed for ya...

[Jenny A]

I'm sorry about your dad. Loosing a parent you haven't been close to carries a lot of baggage.

But, before pronouncing it's a miracle, always consider just how easy it is to invent a reason for any particular date being "special." It could also have been: the day he died, one week after he died, exactly two months after he died; exactly one year after his death; his birthday; your birthday; Easter, Christmas, 58 days after his death (if he just turned 58), the day your mother or a sibling learned of his death, the date he was born in any month, and on and on. If you are looking for coincidence, the whole year becomes pretty darn special, pretty fast.

Which leads me to dimaniac's suggestion that you: "Expect chain of coincidences in near future. God is communicating with you." If you look for coincidences, you will find them because coincidences are more probable than we think. The chances of two people in a random group of 30 share a birthday is about 75%. That anything happens of a particular day of the year is one in 365 which isn't all that low.

[LostDays]

You all pretty much confirmed what I already was feeling. I guess it's my own emotions getting in the way here, and yes I am 100% a skeptic so I am always re-evaluating situations and things. I also appreciate the comment about wanting to create a more meaningful message to your children if you ever were to pass.. Fair enough.. I definitely can see I am looking more into things than anything else. I don't have anyone in my life who shares my Atheist views and just wanted to get some opinions. Thanks for all your responses I appreciate the time everyone took.

I'm still very much a lost soul trying to understand myself still, so I appreciate everyone's input.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Expect chain of coincidences in near future. God is communicating with you. That's how I became a theist

OP. Ignore this silly comment from this very silly individual. He is trying to sell you snake oil, specifically oil that he himself peddles.

As to your elucidation, and the others that have commented here, it is more than probably simply a coincidence. They happen all the time, and whilst sometimes a pattern can be derived, more often there isn't any pattern to discern (see: Jenny's comment above).

Consider that dreams are a way for the brain to compartmentalise the information that you've assimilated during the day (or over a given time period) whilst dismissing the irrelevant material. Often this can be information that you didn't notice, but your brain did. Again, Jenny above elucidates on some of this potential but really the time scale between his death and your discovery is effectively irrelevant. If you want to discern a pattern to the time that you father died to the time you learned about it,you could. Time wouldn't matter.

Also we need to consider the relevance of what we have observed collectively as a species over time. People communicating from the dead is, thus far, an impossibility. It's never been proven to happen, & contravenes the very nature of reality that we know to this date.

Also consider, finally, that being an atheist doesn't entail not believing in woo and spiritualism (etc). Others have already pointed this out so I'll just touch on it, but atheism is simply a lack of belief in deities as a minimum. I know some atheists who swear blind by homoeopathy and reflexology for example.

Anyway, regardless of what you conclude, I hope you and the rest of your family are ok.

[TreeSapNest]

In the same way that psychic readers can make the insignificant appear significant, any discovery in the obituaries of any relevance to you, from any date and from anywhere in the world, would have seemed a message from your father.