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Atheist parents comfort children about death without talk of God or heaven [View all]
For Julie Drizin, being an atheist parent means being deliberate. She rewrote the words to Silent Night when her daughters were babies to remove words like holy, found a secular Sunday school where the children light candles of understanding, and selects gifts carefully to promote science, art and wonder at nature. So when she pulled her 9- and 13-year-olds together this week in their Takoma Park home to tell them about the slaughter of 20 elementary school students in Newtown, Conn., her words were plain: Something horrible happened, and we feel sad about it, and you are safe.
And that was it.
Ive explained to them [in the past] that some people believe God is waiting for them, but I dont believe that. I believe when you die, its over and you live on in the memory of people you love and who love you, she said this week. I cant offer them the comfort of a better place. Despite all the evils and problems in the world, this is the heaven were living in the heaven and its the one we work to make. Its not a paradise.
This is what facing death and suffering looks like in an atheist home.
As so many millions of Americans turn to clergy and prayers to help their children sort out the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, parents like Drizin do not. They dont agonize over interpreting Gods will or message in the event. They dont seek to explain what kind of God allows suffering, and they dont fudge it when children ask what happens to people who die, be they Grandma or the young victims of Newtown.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/atheist-parents-comfort-children-about-death-without-talk-of-god-or-heaven/2012/12/22/4f59531c-4aeb-11e2-a6a6-aabac85e8036_story.html
And that was it.
Ive explained to them [in the past] that some people believe God is waiting for them, but I dont believe that. I believe when you die, its over and you live on in the memory of people you love and who love you, she said this week. I cant offer them the comfort of a better place. Despite all the evils and problems in the world, this is the heaven were living in the heaven and its the one we work to make. Its not a paradise.
This is what facing death and suffering looks like in an atheist home.
As so many millions of Americans turn to clergy and prayers to help their children sort out the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, parents like Drizin do not. They dont agonize over interpreting Gods will or message in the event. They dont seek to explain what kind of God allows suffering, and they dont fudge it when children ask what happens to people who die, be they Grandma or the young victims of Newtown.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/atheist-parents-comfort-children-about-death-without-talk-of-god-or-heaven/2012/12/22/4f59531c-4aeb-11e2-a6a6-aabac85e8036_story.html
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Atheist parents comfort children about death without talk of God or heaven [View all]
cleanhippie
Dec 2012
OP
Believing this is the only life I've got makes me appreciate it more, not less.
NYC Liberal
Dec 2012
#9
And believing in an afterlife does not equal the surrender of control or meaning
Leontius
Dec 2012
#42
Its not your personal belief in an afterlife that is the problem. Its when groups who believe
cleanhippie
Dec 2012
#44
When one indoctrinates their child into a belief system that supercedes reality...
cleanhippie
Dec 2012
#51
Again not surprised that you fail to take notice when your prejudice is pointed out
Leontius
Dec 2012
#62
Excellent instead of facing the challenge as an adult you respond with more childish pique.
Leontius
Dec 2012
#64
Ha! Typical of you to try amnd turn it around. YOU are the one that went off the rails.
cleanhippie
Dec 2012
#65
You know you're right there is something in the Bible about 'suffering the little children'.
Leontius
Dec 2012
#68
You base this question on the premise that religion or god is required for someone to be moral.
Promethean
Dec 2012
#20
I think this part needs to be stressed more. Especially for the religious.
LiberalFighter
Dec 2012
#15
I agree, but we both know that will never happen. Gotta keep the lie alive.
cleanhippie
Dec 2012
#58