I cannot bring myself to say to a religious family, this person is really going to be no more
Perseus, the above is not strictly relevant, because not all religions believe in an after-life. However, I applaud a worhty sentiment.
I agree with your views on Philosophy and the teaching of schools. Do you include the new religion of Homosexual behaviour being taught, as it is, from 5 years upwards, and not as a general subject?
Now, there on some on these boards, and I do not include you, who enjoy nothing more than slamming home to the those of religious persuasion , at every opportunity, the point of view you cannot bring yourself to express. But of course, scientifically, the atheist point of view is without any proof or foundation whatsoever. (It is a matter which any child can understand but no atheist can solve.)
There are those who swallow what these guys say, whole, because it is blasted with arrogant bravado and bluster by those who cannot accept any alternative opinion to their own. I accept this happens, because I am aware that in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.
I myself would politely point out to such preachers that they are imposing their little bog-standard closed minds upon a subject which to the greatest scientists and philosophers is still a puzzle, and it is something absolutely beyond the ken of those tiny brains shouting in the dark.
I am happy for atheists to believe whatever they want, but they should steer clear of imposing ignorance so forcefully upon those who happen not to share their views.
Has religion caused wars? Certainly, but that is basically the fault of the nature of man, as indicated by Darwin.
Why should a creation, which might well include the use of evolution in its process, be out of the question, when we know that we ourselves are perfectly capable in the future of creating human existance from scratch on far distant planets. We could possibly be considered 'the man in the sky' to far generations in their carefully uninfluenced Gardens of Eden.
And there is the question of Time as a dimension, wherein everything was created long before the big bang, and then switched on, to programme. This is a commendable scientific approach.
Who on earth can rule out a creation, a creative force?