My older sister Jenny was killed in a car accident at the age of 28 in August last year. I have been an atheist my entire life, and it is something I have always struggled with, and am having a particularly difficult time with now. I know that I will never believe in god or an afterlife, and I feel that this makes the grieving process even more difficult.
Over the last couple of months I have become very afraid of death, both my own and that of those close to me. I have never had much experience with fear before. I have never really been confronted with anything that truly terrified me until I was forced to contemplate the reality of death without an afterlife, or any kind of comfort from a belief in the divine.
I've been to counseling, which really helped with the acute grief and depression I was suffering about six months after my sister's death. I have found a lot of comfort in the thought that she lives on in the effects she had on others, but I find no comfort in that thought when contemplating my own mortality. there are so many things that I want to do that the concept of death as a final ending is almost overwhelming.
I would like to hear thoughts from anyone who has had to deal with loss and for some reason has been unable to find comfort in religious beliefs.
Grief And Atheism
in General Grief & Loss Topics
Posted
My older sister Jenny was killed in a car accident at the age of 28 in August last year. I have been an atheist my entire life, and it is something I have always struggled with, and am having a particularly difficult time with now. I know that I will never believe in god or an afterlife, and I feel that this makes the grieving process even more difficult.
Over the last couple of months I have become very afraid of death, both my own and that of those close to me. I have never had much experience with fear before. I have never really been confronted with anything that truly terrified me until I was forced to contemplate the reality of death without an afterlife, or any kind of comfort from a belief in the divine.
I've been to counseling, which really helped with the acute grief and depression I was suffering about six months after my sister's death. I have found a lot of comfort in the thought that she lives on in the effects she had on others, but I find no comfort in that thought when contemplating my own mortality. there are so many things that I want to do that the concept of death as a final ending is almost overwhelming.
I would like to hear thoughts from anyone who has had to deal with loss and for some reason has been unable to find comfort in religious beliefs.