Memo to My Atheist Friends

Originally posted by twhitehead
It is entirely possible that I "the supernatural... and the life after". I have certainly done so in the past at difficult times in my life, including one time I thought I was dying. However, my pondering will probably not include this forum as I do not think I have received any useful information in that regard from this forum. And that applies even more ...[text shortened]... real life the way you attempt to communicate online. If so, you must have a very difficult life.

"... I do not think I have received any useful information in that regard from this forum." twhitehead, what your questions?

Originally posted by twhitehead to Grampy Bobby
Getting information out of you seems to be practically impossible. I wonder if you communicate in real life the way you attempt to communicate online. If so, you must have a very difficult life.

I think it's just Grampy Bobby getting his cyber kicks. You'll note that, when he draws expressions of irritation or disrespect for his unconcealed passive aggressiveness from his interlocutors, he starts threads about "Trolls" and "Trolling".

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Would you agree that nobody can have a conversation with much less "pray" to a person they haven't come to know.

Originally posted by Suzianne
News flash:

Fear of death is not the prime motivation for seeking a higher truth.

Often a greater motivation is the fear of being alone.


Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the soun ...[text shortened]... ts are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence.

Well, that's not going to be MY problem🙂 We just got our 25th grandchild! HELP🙂

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Why do many theists apparently find it so hard to accept that atheists can act just as courageously in the face of apparently imminent death?

I don't think I wrote that there are not some "heroic" Atheist deaths.
If you get a warm fuzzy that some staunch God deniers died with a stiff upper lip, I really have no problem with that.

I already told at least one true tongue and cheek account of a "fox hole" prayers. My dad said the guy went right back to being the stinker he was before after his foxhole conversion.

I have never drawn right up to the doors of death. So I will not be presumptuous to dictate how everyone else should behave. It is, you must admit, a very personal thing to die.

History records both humor and despair at that point. If some atheist cracks a joke the moment he dies, say like a Timothy Leary, causing some smiles even on faces, I have no reason to doubt that.

That some people save face to the very end, is not suprising to me.
You can look up people's last words before dying, and you will find some to chuckle about.

Personally, I would advise that its not really a laughing matter in terms of one's salvation with God.

What you do at the point of death may be recorded differently by those who survive you based on what THEY want to promote. People will assume to interpret this or that saying or action according to what they want to believe about you as you went off.

So I do take with a grain of salt many accounts of last words of famous people.

As I recall of his memoir, Martin Poppel was an atheist who never prayed to
God because he did not believe that God existed or that any prayer could
alter his fate in battle. I don't believe he was 'boasting'. He was simply
stating that his fear of death was not enough to put an end to his atheism.

Okay. To clarify then I thought the account was submitted in a kind of boast.

Personally, when I have been in dangerous situations, I have not prayed to
God because I lack a habit of praying and the notion did not occur to me.

Prayer to me is like breathing. It is an enjoyment to stay in touch with my heavenly Father. There is so much to thank Him for and praise Him for.

I have to stop writing now.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[b]Memo to My Atheist Friends

If your last days are spent in a hospital, hospice or at home is it likely that you'll remember and/or ponder again for the first time information you've received on this forum regarding "the supernatural... and the life after" as you're dying? -Bob[/b]

I'm not sure a question passes as a memo.

At any rate, I would say it is not likely. One of the things this forum has helped crystallize in my thoughts is just how evidentially challenged, silly, and ego-pandering is the idea of life after death. This has in some part helped me come to a healthier understanding and acceptance of death. I am guessing such last days would be an emotional time, but I think it is more likely that, to the extent I am pondering anything at that age and mental state, I would be pondering family, friends, and whatever defining memories I have left of the events in my life.

Originally posted by Suzianne
Ignorance is a remarkably flexible thing. It is not given solely to any one race, creed, color, gender, nationality or religion, but sprinkled among all humans. Yes, Americans could ignorantly assume the motivations of all Japanese kamikazes, just as Japanese could ignorantly assume that all Americans assumed this.

Faith, regardless of flavor, is no hamper to scientific knowledge, and vice versa.

Faith, regardless of flavor, is no hamper to scientific knowledge, and vice versa.

That's false, and you know it. 'Faith', especially in ardent forms, is marked generally by strong positive affections or pro-attitudes towards the truth of some proposition. And such allegiance can taint one's interpretation of the scientific evidence regarding whether or not that proposition and related ones are true. In other words, we should expect that ardent faith would hamper one's objectivity regarding scientific inquiry into the object of faith and related subjects. Of course, this is not news to you. It's funny that, for example, you would rag on RJHinds on the grounds that his faith blinds him to the obvious scientific reality of, say, evolution; and yet here you are claiming that faith of any flavor is no hamper to scientific knowledge. 🙄

Originally posted by LemonJello
I'm not sure a question passes as a memo.

At any rate, I would say it is not likely. One of the things this forum has helped crystallize in my thoughts is just how evidentially challenged, silly, and ego-pandering is the idea of life after death. This has in some part helped me come to a healthier understanding and acceptance of death. I am guessing ...[text shortened]... pondering family, friends, and whatever defining memories I have left of the events in my life.

As always I respect your right to voice an opinion and appreciated your "last days" speculations. Thanks for weighing in.