Handling death
A question from Dominick
How do we handle it when someone we know and care about dies?
The reason I ask this question is because a good friend of mine died today. I guess it would have been easier if she had died from some kind of illness, but she died in a house fire at 6:45 a.m. this morning.
I saw her on Friday and we spoke a bit on Sunday and I was planning on going to see her at work on that day, just to mess with her a bit :) I am not telling you about my friend’s death to make you feel sorry for me or anything like that, it is just that I have to go to her funeral , when I find out what day it is, and i don't think I can handle that very well.
I have never had anyone this close to me before dying, plus the fact when I last saw her, she was smiling and laughing and now she is gone.
I am sure some of you asking why I am posting about my friend's death on an ex-Christian site. It is because I am a lifelong atheist and I wanted to know how other atheists handle it when someone close to them dies. I am also wondering if I am the only one that gets pissed off when Christians say things like. “Your friend is in a better place now,” “God only take the good ones young,” or “God as a special place in heaven for her.” When I go to her funeral, I have to listen a pastor, priest or whatever it is talk about what kind of person she was and how God was calling her home – a person that has never met my friend and knows nothing about her at all…
How am I going to be able to sit there and take that in when I know that bullshit is coming out of this person’s mouth, knowing full well that I will never see her smile again, never hold her in my arms again, and wonder why this good god these Christians keep on talking about would take my friend away in such a painful way.
How do we handle it when someone we know and care about dies?
The reason I ask this question is because a good friend of mine died today. I guess it would have been easier if she had died from some kind of illness, but she died in a house fire at 6:45 a.m. this morning.
I saw her on Friday and we spoke a bit on Sunday and I was planning on going to see her at work on that day, just to mess with her a bit :) I am not telling you about my friend’s death to make you feel sorry for me or anything like that, it is just that I have to go to her funeral , when I find out what day it is, and i don't think I can handle that very well.
I have never had anyone this close to me before dying, plus the fact when I last saw her, she was smiling and laughing and now she is gone.
I am sure some of you asking why I am posting about my friend's death on an ex-Christian site. It is because I am a lifelong atheist and I wanted to know how other atheists handle it when someone close to them dies. I am also wondering if I am the only one that gets pissed off when Christians say things like. “Your friend is in a better place now,” “God only take the good ones young,” or “God as a special place in heaven for her.” When I go to her funeral, I have to listen a pastor, priest or whatever it is talk about what kind of person she was and how God was calling her home – a person that has never met my friend and knows nothing about her at all…
How am I going to be able to sit there and take that in when I know that bullshit is coming out of this person’s mouth, knowing full well that I will never see her smile again, never hold her in my arms again, and wonder why this good god these Christians keep on talking about would take my friend away in such a painful way.
