The Colors of a Tragedy. VT and Godless Grieving

[no_hypocrisy]

Today the colors of a tragedy are orange and maroon, the school colors of Virginia Tech. Margaret Downey, president of the Atheist Alliance International has encouraged the atheist community to mourn the loss of innocent lives by wearing orange and maroon clothing today.

Atheists realize that there is only one life and are deeply saddened when it is prematurely taken from anyone.

"We are further saddened by the loss of young people who had so much to offer the world. When a young person dies, we mourn not only the life that was, but also the life that might have been," Downey said.

Speaking of a person's legacy and recounting life stories brings a person back to life in our hearts and minds. Remember them and they will live again.


http://atheistalliance.org/library/news_042007.php

[Midlodemocrat]

1. I'm a person of faith and grief to me is less about Heaven and

more about missing the person. I firmly and totally believe in an afterlife. I don't think I could cope if I didn't think I would see some of my departed family ever again, so I choose to believe.

Grief is grief, at least to me. I don't think an atheist's grief is any less painful.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. perhaps it is moreso

because atheists believe consciousness ceases when a person dies. Your belief and mine say it continues, and so we comfort.

It is important to be there--and just be--for a grieving person, I think. Allow them to share their pain, their anger, and their memories. Having compassion for another is the key here.

[Midlodemocrat]

4. You could be right. I have a hope that I hold onto.

I'm not sure where I would be if I didn't.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. I have hope

and experiences that make me know that death is a transition of consciousness.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Thanks for this

and thanks to Margaret Downey encouraging this. So many Americans have distorted views of atheism, and think of non-believers as having no moral compass or compassion. Acts like this are a good way to educate people.