Why do bad things happen? Because they do.

[Brian37]

Is your friend a theist or atheist?
If he is an atheist it would indeed be quite inapropriate to start talking about God in this matter.
Otherwise it'd be ok I guess.
But yeah, I understand your frustration. I'd think the same.

He's an atheist. He's the one that told me about Dawkins meme theory. Upon reading the preface of Dawkin's "Greatest Show on Earth", I read Dawkins blasting Plato for fucking up human logic. And at first I was thinking "holy shit how could he do that?". I asked my friend why Dawkins was saying this and he explained that it was not everything Plato said, but one particular idea that lead to ideology in general. Plato's idea that if you simply thought about something long enough you could find it's "essence". The problem with Plato's idea is that it had no benefit of quality control like modern scientific method does. Plato certainly valued the idea of questioning, but that alone isn't enough. Between my friend and Dawkins Plato got knocked down a couple notches for me.


My friend has had a huge influence on my life. Not just introducing me to skeptics and science, but just being accepted for me is why I love him so much.

[robvalue]

The old "I'll pray for you" bullshit really upsets me when I'm going through something traumatic.  Sorry, not sorry but that is not what I need to hear during my time of pain. Stop trying to shove your religion down everyone's throats. Its not helpful in any way to an atheist and its rather insulting that you know who you're talking to, that they are in pain and yet you selfishly take an opportunity to try and be all preachy. Don't. Just don't. Your silence is better than your prayers to your god.

I agree. If they want to pray for you, they can do so in private. Why the need to publicise it? Does it only work if you know about it? Or are they just trying to make themselves feel important and caring? How about you keep that to yourself, and show some actual care for the person.

"I'll go plead with God, to ask him to stop being such a cunt."

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Didn't know where to put this, but I put it here because it is personal but does relate to the nature of reality.

Just got some bad news last night that a long time friend who had a stroke last year just had another. We thought he was doing better, so much so they moved him out of a hospital into a long term care place. There is no god punishing him or me, this is simply what happens to alot of old people. 

Others here can tell the theists, we really don't want you talking about your fictional sky hero when we are going through things like this. I don't think you realize even if you think you are trying to be nice, the response in our head is either "bullshit" or "shut the fuck up".

But when it is the theist's loved one we remain silent and listen to you talk about god. But when we are the ones going through it we are still expected not to express our positions. 

This guy may not have much time left while we do still hope he could recover somewhat. I can tell you he is the sweetest guy I have ever met, and gave me the courage to feel comfortable in my own skin. We talked almost every single day for the past 15 years and got me through some rough times when it came to my mother's health issues. I am no scientific expert in the least, but he also lead me to lots skeptics and general understanding of some science I didn't have prior.

The comfort I have in all this is feeling lucky to have met and knowing him. So why does such a bad thing happen to such a good person? Because reality isn't magic or a utopia, and something always gets us at some point. Now is all we have.

The bad news is that there's no really good way to die.  Personally I think a quick death is better than a long drawn out dying process.  I've known a lot of people who had serious medical conditions but were saved from dying by various treatments.  Then they lingered in a debilitated state suffering every day until they finally reached the point of no return.  I think that's a bad experience.

[Brian37]

Got to talk to him last night, he seemed to be doing much better, talked more, but with strokes people have a hard time finding words and or recognizing things. His mobility I think is the biggest issue. I am just holding out the hope his memory and brain function can improve. That's all I can do.

[BenMighty]

Theists are obnoxious in that they think everyone always wants to hear about their bullshit.

They are wrong.

Oh yeah, and it's very annoying.