Atheists: What would you say to a dying child who asks you if they'll go to heaven?

[Succubus]

'No, love, you aren't going to Heaven, but something much more wonderful is going to happen.  When your body stops working, you'll sleep forever and ever.  But the part of you that's left will break down into a million, jillion teeny pieces and become part of everything in the whole world - trees, bumblebees, the oceans - just everything.  And those tiny bits of you will never, ever go away. You're going to be part of everything forever and ever, so you aren't really going away.'

Boru

Can you say that to me on my deathbed

Lovely isn't it.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Assume the child is very young, somewhere in the range of 4-8, perhaps? Their parents are religious. They're worried about hell. What will your response be?

I'd tell them to grow up.

[Little lunch]

I doubt that anyone here would say anything but yes, you're going to heaven.
I can honestly say that if I had a friend that said anything otherwise, they'd be gone from my life in an instant.

[Shell B]

Assume the child is very young, somewhere in the range of 4-8, perhaps? Their parents are religious. They're worried about hell. What will your response be?

Don’t worry. Hell isn’t real.

[energizer bunny]

Just calmly tell the poor child that they will be going to hell instead.

---

For real i'd probably tell them that i wouldn't know what happens after death.

[Angrboda]

Use the occsion to blackmail the tyke into giving you embarrassing information on his parents. Cui bono?

[Minimalist]

I suppose an insurance company executive would say "hurry up kid...we need the bed."

[johan]

I'd tell them that heaven doesn't exist and that its just a myth their parents were foolish enough to believe. What? Its not like I'm ever going see the kid again.

[Angrboda]

I'd tell them that heaven doesn't exist and that its just a myth their parents were foolish enough to believe. What? Its not like I'm ever going see the kid again.

Might be grateful, if the flip side of his concern for heaven were that he was bound to end up in hell.

[mlmooney89]

If I'm going to lie to a kid I'll tell them that they will get well instead.

But then when they're about to die you're gonna leave them feeling betrayed, sad and confused.

That's an unfair bit of info you randomly threw in there. You made it seem like the kid was dying in our arms and it was the last convo for the kid. You need to specify if this is something prolonged like a cancer patient with months left or a car accident with minutes.