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Death from an Agnostic/Atheist perspective

Today is the 3rd anniversary of my Grandmas death. As an Agnostic Atheist I feel like I don't know how mourn her. Where do Agnostics/Atheists believe we go when we die? (Sorry I'm new to this)

AtheistLJ 5 Mar 30
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9

I'm an atheist. I don't believe we "go" anywhere when we die. When we die, that's it.
There is nothing else.
There are no rules for mourning loved ones.
My maternal grandmother died over 30 years ago. I still miss her all the time.
I still love her. I still think about her.
I also accept that she's gone and I will never see her again. Never.
That's how life works. We are all going to die eventually. It's inevitable.
No point in getting all twisted about it.

Welcome to the asylum. Enjoy your stay.

7

To anyone reading this. If you like it, please feel free to copy it, including my name.

THE END OF SENTIENCE.

The day I die, my sentience stops.
Please keep in mind, though sighing,
The act of life, of birth and being,
Includes the act of dying.

To me there is no after-life:
All sentience ends that day.
And once one dies, that’s it. One’s dead!
I won’t know if you pray.

So:-
No platitudes, no priests, no tales
Of life in the everlasting.
Remember me for who I was.
And gently regret my passing.

We all must die; yet we live on.
Though neither in heaven nor hell:
But through genes, passed on, and on again,
Down time’s eternal swell.

And also through deeds. The consequence
Of what we do on Earth
Can affect the lives of thousands
Who have yet to discover birth.

So judge not a life by piety,
But by things for which it stood.
Not from pious fear of a mighty God,
But from belief in the might of good.

Petter Finne
28.01.2010

Mind if I borrow it and post in on Facebook? Can I include your name or just put initials? Tolls can find you if you are on FB.

Quite nice, Petter Finne

@Barnie2years No problem. I'm on FB as Petter_Talisman, named after my old publishing group. I'm also on All Poetry under my real name. I prefer my full name anyway. All my poetry is meant to be read - that's why I write it. All my FB posts are set to "public", anyway. I just don't put any sensitive data there.

@Petter thanks. I never worry too much about what’s on my FB, most of my posts go public those it offends are free to take me off their newsfeed or unfriendly me. Your poem was very much within my feelings toward death. Enjoy your time here and the people who love you. At some point, them and you are going to follow the cycle of life. There is no redo.

Actually, this poem is a "gentle" version of the epitaph I wrote for myself, which was inspired whilst sitting in a church, at a friend's funeral, and hearing the presiding "god-botherer" utter platitudes and make comments about a person he had NEVER met, all the while promising paradise. My friend was an atheist, but his wife was not, and since he could no longer say "no" there was a religious funeral. Fortunately, my wife is as devout an atheist as myself. That's a least two good wakes to come!!

5

I've always loved this quote from Chief Joseph:
"We live, we die, and like the grass and trees, renew ourselves from the soft earth of the grave." ❤

bjbj Level 3 Apr 7, 2018
5

We are the stuff of stars and will return to that eventually.

Source:

Sweet memories. My beloved, deceased mother and I watched "Cosmos" together.

AstralDebri

5

My parents died a few years apart, several years ago. I think they live on in us and in our memories. When my thoughts turn to them I try and recall some fond memory of our time together and just charish that.

4

I cannot tell yo how to mourn but my belief is that death causes a person to cease to exist. The departed exist then only in the minds of those who remember them.

4

From my perspective, and I have thought this throug, when your dead you don't know you were alive so no problem.

4

We go nowhere. We cease to exist. All metabolic and brain function ends.

Mourning is a natural and healthy thing for us to do. Remember the good times you had with her, how she had an impact on your life and that of others, what she left behind to remember her. That is how we continue on after we die.

3

Your religion or non religion has no bearing on mourning a loved one. You loved her, you miss her, sometimes something triggers you to cry a little, sometimes some memory makes you laugh. You go on with your life, live well, try to honor her memory by being a good person.

3

I like to remember that part of them is not gone. The influences that they have had on others. The impact that they had on the world. I feel that matter and energy can't be created or distroyed, so I listen to the wind.

2

The iron in our blood was made in the last stages of a dying sun and once again it and the carbon in our body will be recycled in the ecosystem surrounding us. The almost infinite cycle of life and our universe. She will live on in these things.

2

I personally believe when the body dies, that's it. No soul that moves on. In mourning lost loves, I focus on the joyous times that I was fortunate enough to be part of their lives.

2

I don't believe in any kind of afterlife, but my dna, and the things that I teach my kids will live on through them and their kids, and their kid's kids. I guess I sorta see that as a piece of me living forever.

2

I am not an Atheist. As an Agnostic and a hospice nurse, do what feels right is the best advice I can give, even if you refer back to the religious traditions you were raised with. Through grieving and living, nothing is wrong if it feels right and you don't hurt anyone else.
I don't believe we just cease to exist when we die, not in the minds and hearts of the living. The living may need to hang on to the dead...their spirit or what have you. We die when the living release us.
I did, long ago, as a nonbeliever, light a yartzite candle for my Jewish grandfather just to be closer to him after he died. Do what feels right, AgnosticLJ

2

When my wife died last year, I probably put a lot of her family off their feed when I began the preparations for funerary considerations. Her family is all very Christian, and she was not. She viewed the body as something worthless to her after death, and did not want any crazy expensive funeral rites, just a simple cremation. Likewise, she did not want a big mournful memorial, she wanted a party. And you can bet I threw her a big ol party! We drank her favorite beer, we shared our favorite memories, we honored her life by forging new friendships and strengthening old ones, and we laughed more than we cried. We celebrate her life by choosing not to forget the powerful woman that she was. As far as where we go after we die? I will share my wife’s favorite bit of wisdom. Only the dead know what lies beyond, and they are not talking to us.

2

Mourn her by enjoying life. She loved you so she'd want you to be happy.

Gohan Level 7 Mar 30, 2018
2

I think that we all just go back to the earth ... soil becomes rich when our flesh is gone we then feed the plants and insects that feed ...etc. etc. etc. we still go one in another form. Spirtually our souls are carried on by the memories good or bad of those that are left behind ... till that to passes! It's all a matter of perspective my dear ... positive or negative ... the living are what carries who we were on.

1

Sorry for your loss. I believe that is the end, but it doesn't have to be a sad story. She will continue to live on in the minds of others who loved her and who's lives were shaped by her and as long as her decendants continue, some part of her will continue to live on for many many years. I too lost my grandmother a few years ago and while it is sad, she lived to be 100 years old and lived a good life loving and passing part of herself on to others in so many ways. Cherish your memory of her and honor her any way you can, in that you can find joy. The real sadness I felt for her and for myself came in her later years. When she Couldn't Garden anymore and especially when she could no longer cook, oh how she loved to cook. I have always found it more difficult when a younger person dies, My Dad died at 47 in a accident (I'm 53). I hate it when kids die, Life Contrary to what believers might think, is just that more precious to me.

1

When my dad died, I cried for two days. I still miss him after four years. I had the opportunity to visit with him before his death but could not make it to the funeral (I live 900 miles way). Mourning is different for each person for each death. Let your body tell you what is the right thing to do.

1

There are no rules once you leave rules behind I think maybe the kindes thing ot do is to remember yout Grandma kindly and fondly- i don't think there is a we in this sort of sense all athoests are probably different in the way we want to think about that which is beyond comprehension - The church has it right in a way that we can make our own rituals and have our own thought but once you leave conventional stuff behind there is only yourself and how you want to keep the memory of your Grandma alive.

1

I lost my dad in 1990. I miss him every day. I don't believe that I will see him again in some afterlife. I have no choice but to cope with the loss of him, but good memories do bring me some comfort. Grief is a process that can't be forced or controlled entirely. We just have to allow time and our inner strength help us manage it.

Deb57 Level 8 Mar 30, 2018
1

5 For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten. 6 Indeed their love, their hate and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.​

1

So Sorry about your Mom,

But your question has many answers depending on what perspective you gonna take

in emotional way

Death mean the end it is Separation and inevitable departure we no gonna be able to see the one we love.

by science
it's the end of every thing in the world its the time for atoms and molecules that form us to be released as their role is over so, their no escape of this. Just accept it.

by Spiritual Thinkers

it's the time for the soul to be released free to be part of another form of life in this plant it's the absolute law of sustainability of life.

So what ever your question mean it's leads to the most un doubtable facts on the planet.
So, whatever you think about death it's all back to what's you feel about death.

Miloo Level 6 Mar 30, 2018
0

One mourns loss. You certainly don't have to believe in an afterlife to mourn the loss of a loved one.

0

We don't, we're dead.

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