Tag Archives: Death

THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE – ATHEISM

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Atheism is the belief that God, deities, and spiritual beings do not exist. The term "Atheism" is a combination of a, which means without, and theism, which means belief in God or gods. According to Atheism, people do not need to rely on gods or holy writings to create moral codes to rule life. Many Atheists are avid secularists and are against the inclusion of religion in public affairs. Some people who are Atheists are actually religious. Religions as Buddhism comply with principles of Atheism, as do religions that grew out of Judaism and Christianity that take a more humanistic approach and do not focus on the existence of God. Most Atheists have a personal reason as to why they do not believe Read more [...]

Funerals – Dying an Atheist

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Dying in America is a complex and distasteful process for most American families and often a taboo subject. As Timothy Leary puts it: "Most human beings are taught to face death, like life, as victims - helpless, fearful, resigned. We're schooled and counseled - programmed to act out a life of scripts based on our worst tendencies toward fear and self-doubt....Throughout history 'fear of dying' has been used by priests, police, politicians, and physicians to undermine individualistic thinking, to increase our dependence on authority and to glorify victimization." 1 He goes on: "Think of all the hot-button issues that get the church fathers' panties all in a bunch: conception, test-tube fertilization, Read more [...]

Atheist Funeral Customs

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Atheist funerals — usually quite similar to humanist funerals — are becoming more and more common. They are appropriate memorials to those who lived their lives without religious affiliation and reject the typically religious views associated with life and death. At these atheist services there is no specific reference to an afterlife, as atheists do not believe in any deity. Instead, the funeral services are a tribute to the life the deceased lived. Loved ones that are left behind are acknowledged, and the deceased’s life is remembered through memories. At an atheist funeral, it is best to avoid platitudes like “she’s in a better place now” or “he’s watching us from heaven Read more [...]

Life after Death?

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Author: David Nicholls   Before an inquiry into this topic can be initiated, it would be of benefit to establish what we know about life. Science has clearly demonstrated that we homo sapiens are an end product of millions of years of evolution. It also has shown that our species is not in itself the end result of all evolution, but merely the successful adaptations able to talk about it. There is in excess of ten million other species on our planet, with humans as one of the latecomers. Each and every one of the other creatures have adaptations that assure their survival, with many having occupied Earth for many hundreds of millions of years, some in their present form. The Read more [...]

An Atheist’s Perspective on Death

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Author: Keith S Cornish The simple fact is that all life-forms end in death and the elements of which they are composed return to the air and the earth to be taken up and recycled in some new organism. This natural process is universal and is beyond dispute. What is challenged by atheists and freethinkers is the claim made by purveyors of religion that humans alone of all living forms have a 'soul' or 'spirit' which survives death and carries the essential characteristics of the person to a supernatural existence in a super natural realm. The method or pathway for making this crossing to a new life beyond the grave varies widely between religions and between the multitude of Christian Read more [...]

Non-religious funerals

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Non-religious funerals are legal, and funeral directors and crematoriums and cemeteries are accustomed to arranging them. Why a non-religious funeral? Many people are uncomfortable with religious funerals if religion had no meaning for the dead person, and when most of the dead person's closest relatives and friends are not religious. Some people find that a church funeral (no matter how well done) for a non-believer is just a formal religious ritual conducted by someone with no knowledge of the dead person, and which doesn't help them to say farewell to someone they love. Religious people will often organise a non-religious funeral if the person who has died was not a believer, out of Read more [...]