It's OK to be an atheist

[Orrex]

202. The grieving parent is under no obligation to coddle a theistic busybody

If the theist is offended that the grieving person doesn't want to hear the theist's sermon, then that's the theist's problem. In times of grief, the absolute priority goes to the person who is suffering. Any attempt to proselytize, whether by the atheist or the theist, is boorish at best and the height of inexcusable rudeness.

I have been atheist for more than three decades, I have known many atheists, and have known many people who've suffered loss. In all that time I have never once seen an atheist take advantage of that suffering in order to advertise a worldview that the sufferer might not share. For instance, no atheist tells a grieving believer "you know there's no heaven, right?" Find me the atheist who does that, and I will call him out as a cruel asshole.

In stark and vile contrast, I see theists do it all the time. ALL THE TIME. In fact, I have seen them do it in literally every case of loss or suffering that I have ever witnessed. Sure, they do it under the pretense of "meaning well," but it boils down to one of the following:

1. They do or don't know the sufferer's views but don't know how else to offer comfort
2. They don't know the sufferer's views and don't care to know them
3. They know the sufferer's views and don't respect them

#1 is frustrating but understandable, while 2 and 3 are clear statements that the "comforter's" views are more important than the sufferer's view and, further, that the "comforter's" views are more important than the sufferer's grief.


So I'm sorry that you find it "rude and confrontational," but when an atheist has finally had enough and is willing to risk the repercussions of revealing her lack of belief, then you can be assured that's a response to the subtly (and not so subtly) "rude and confrontational" theists they've endured for years or decades.