Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair Facing Dismemberment and Her Son's and Granddaughter's Death

a reply to: seentoomuch

We live in a simulation. When we finish this life we are plugged into another.

The technicians running the show have a good laugh at the irony of it all. Then they ask you which simulation you would like next.

Thanks for all the replies to this very hard question. I can't answer all the responses tonight so here's an over-all reply.

Everyday on ATS there's threads about the end of the world and a given date. But the truth is The Moment is the end of the world for each of us whenever it happens. No escaping it. We should all give thought to this and how we're going to deal with it.

I've never seen a thread with Atheists discussing their future/death/life and imho it should be discussed. So far from the replies I've received it seems that there are varying degrees with side shoots. Just saying'….

Think about it and go for the brass ring imho….

STM

S&F!

Fact: There are no atheists in the afterlife!

In my last moments I would be mentally preparing myself, as best I could, to escape the hungry ghosts that come for ones soul at the moment of death to confuse my spirit and keep me from realizing that I AM GOD!

I once had a anxiety attack so bad without knowing what it was that I thought for sure I was dying within perhaps seconds. My thoughts on the matter were generally...well lets see if something happens.

I have a pretty comfortable stance with religion..nonsense in general. the bigger questions of life after death, deities, etc..I don't know...and so at death, I tend to drift towards the...well, soon I will know.

If there is some vengeful deity that requires me to believe in a religion before death...then meh, no big loss overall in not going there..I have standards overall in the company I keep..but if I am surprised after my heart stops and something else is there...I will be happy no doubt, see where it goes. If there is nothing, then well, I wont be the wiser as I will simply cease to be.

Well luckily for the OP, when that last brief flicker of consciousness passes there won't be anything left to have the thought, "That's just great, the atheists were right after all. Well that's certainly embarrassing in retrospect."

originally posted by: seentoomuch

I've never seen a thread with Atheists discussing their future/death/life and it imho it should be discussed. So far from the replies I've received it seems that there are varying degrees with side shoots. Just saying'….

Think about it and go for the brass ring imho….

STM

2 of those 3 concepts are discussed in, dare I say, every thread or post on this board. Life and the Future are very frequent topics individually and can't really be separated from who and where we are in the present moment. As far as death, the only time I've thought about it recently was when I was putting together legal papers, will, living will, who would take care of my kids if I were gone, who gets my comic books, what to do with the music studio, should my lawyer keep my firearms until my son is 18 etc. Other than that it isn't a big concern for me because its going to happen to all of us eventually. Its an inescapable inevitability for every organic life form we know of.

The reason religious people are concerned with the topic is because of their concepts of an after life. As that isn't a concern for me, I focus on the here and now. I'm far more concerned with helping my kids with their homework and teaching them values and morals...oh yes, even atheists and agnostics have values and morals shocking as it may be. When I was in the army, it wasn't really any different. The concept of no atheists in foxholes is pretty silly as there were several in my platoon and several more littered throughout my Co. Again, the concept of God and an afterlife was, in my opinion a hindrance in that scenario. When you've got tracer fire coming in at 3 AM while on watch the last thing I wanted to deal with was the Uber Catholic in my squad who wouldn't hesitate to start praying whether it was tracers or incoming mortars. I had a job to do and that was keeping my squad alive and I couldn't do that if I was focused on whether I had been to confession recently enough to get past St. Peter and that quite literally was a problem I had to deal with more than once. It put my life in danger as well as the others lives because I was forced to drop MY focus and retask them to the job at hand. People get weird when they're worried about whether or not they've appropriately pleased their deity and think they're going to be killed and I needed focus, not chaos.

At the end of the day it gets a little tiring having to constantly defend myself to strangers or aquaintances over philosophies which cause no harm or foul to anyone else, let alone the religious minded people I come in contact with everywhere I go. I would much prefer to be judged on how I treat them,for whether I show them the appropriate level of respect and courtesy. Judge me for the person I am not the god I do or don't pray to. Just because I don't believe in god doesn't mean I'm not a good person. It doesn't mean that I won't be respectful of your beliefs either, that is UNTIL you deem me unworthy or take it upon yourself to save my lost and irredeemable soul. I'm doing just fine without belief in god and if someone of faith can accept that without shoving jesus down my throat then we're going to get along just fine. My family is still Catholic, my wife is Buddhist and we all still get along, love each other and care for and respect each other. That should be far more important than what denomination I am or where I do or don't go to pray.

originally posted by: seentoomuch
a reply to: benrl
It seems that this topic is too difficult for you but I'll try one more time. All I am asking is what will you do in the moment?

When it is my time, i will be dealing with the situation, and if possible, i will be fighting it tooth and nail. I will not be imagining some fantasy to make me feel better. When i run out of teeth and nails, and im in my final throws of death, i will prob be thinking of my family, who are all atheists.

Your op is gruesome. Only made worse by the obvious pleasure you took typing out in gory detail, your own imaginings of how it went down. and whatever your point is, im assuming you want atheists to admit to a possibility of some kind of deathbed conversion. Why would i pick that time to change my mind? For some reason you cant wrap your head around the fact that we are not just pretending to be atheists. We really dont believe in the fairy tale.

As far as there being no atheists in foxholes? Thats because most of us know better than to go to other peoples countries and wait in holes so we can open fire with automatic weapons. But i know lots of christians who think that war is how you solve problems.

I once asked god if anyone made him "No" he said "Oh so you are an atheist then" then he smote me .

a reply to: ArtemisE

The Bible never claimed to be a historical account so what has been debunked?

What a nasty sordid tale!

Not sure what religion/atheism had to do with any of it.....Sounds like out & to greed to me.

a reply to: DarknStormy


What?!? The bible never claimed to be a historical account?


I'm sorry if I missed the " not to be taken literally" disclaimer in genisis. If it's really just morals to live by. Then why would the concept of god be more then a moral to the story too?

originally posted by: windword

originally posted by: ProfessorChaos

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: seentoomuch

Do you think this woman deserved to be murdered, most likely at the hands of Christians?

That's rather presumptuous of you to say, is it not?

I don't thinks so. Not after reading this in the OP.

tell me atheists did she cry out? Would you? Could she, would she pray as she was the one who was responsible for prayer being forbidden by little children in schools ? - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Sounds like the OP thinks she deserved it for forbidding little children to pray.

Whether or not the OP feels that she deserved it, or not has no bearing on the motives of the assailant(s). As I said, rather presumptuous.

a reply to: ProfessorChaos

Whether or not the OP feels that she deserved it, or not has no bearing on the motives of the assailant(s). As I said, rather presumptuous.

You really want to label me as "presumtuous" don't you? LOL! Why is that?

Reading comprehension, my tin foil hatted friend! The OP has nothing to do with the motives of the assailant. It does, however, have everything do with trying to evoke fear of retribution, from God, and punishment in the hereafter.

Then as she was stood in a barrel as they had been and the chainsaw turned on her….. tell me atheists did she cry out? Would you? Could she, would she pray as she was the one who was responsible for prayer being forbidden by little children in schools ?

Blame! First of all, no one is forbidden to pray. Little children can pray all they like. No one is forced to pray in public school any more, thanks to atheists.

And, the OP has everything to do with PROSELYTIZING.

At that moment you realize there's something more BUT are you too late, have you done too much damage? Would you be welcomed to your real home? Faced with the real deal what would you say? I doubt you would say anything imho, more likely you'll run and hide in the dark and say over and over to yourself that this isn't true….

Preaching like that; "It will be too late!", and warning us, "Have you done too much damage?"! Insinuating that his his God won't let atheists "back home".

In reality, in that situation most people would pray to their assailant. Praying "I'm sorry", "Please forgive me", and "Please let me go"..................Not to some God that they never believed in,.

I wonder when Christians are facing certain death do they start praying to Zeus, Odin, Re, Baal, or the thousands of other gods known throughout history just to cover their bases? It seems those of faith think atheists will all of a sudden start believing in their god so in retrospect doe that mean they will start believing in all the other gods they have dismissed as malarky.

This thread is a bit presumptuous with very little introspect in my opinion.

Posted by winword

Preaching to that "it will be too late", and warning us "have you done too much damage?" Insinuating that his his God won't let atheists "back home".

In reality, in that situation most people would pray to their assailant. Praying "i'm sorry", "Please forgive me". and "Please let me go"..................Not to some God that they never believed in.

Just so you know, the description in the OP of the body shutting down and still finding consciousness intact was from my own near death experiences, that's really how it feels. Think about that.

The incredible being that you find yourself drawn to that loves you just as you are is soooo perfect that you feel like slime, even a saint or a super caring person would feel that way. G_d doesn't need to judge you, you do it, whatever your beliefs. Faced with the truth and perfect love, you need a friend at that moment or you'll run away into the dark to avoid the love that you feel you don't deserve.

Good luck

a reply to: seentoomuch

I think the only one not understanding here is you. They understand your question, they (and I) take personal offense to the offhand manner in which you seem to be using the torture and mutilation of 3 human beings which was done for their beliefs, as a thought scenario by which you seem to be indicating that they SHOULD have thought the opposite of their deeply held beliefs. THUS implying that in the end, when they were suffering "What did they think" well they probably thought what they believed. Your insistence to the contrary speaks more to your sadistic hopes that they regretted their decisions in their final moments rather than any indication that they thought anything than what they purported to think while they were alive and not under duress.

Personally I find the entire question in bad taste, small minded, and really wholly petty and disgusting because of your lack of understanding about what your tone and the question seems to imply.

originally posted by: seentoomuch
Just so you know, the description in the OP of the body shutting down and still finding consciousness intact was from my own near death experiences, that's really how it feels. Think about that.

And jut so YOU know, everything you are describing is a natural bioChemical process of the human brain. It is a natural equivalent to certain psychoactive substances that are verboten On ATS so I'm going to have to tread rather lightly and stick to the science.

Out-of-body experiences are also now known to be common during interrupted sleep patterns that immediately precede sleeping or waking. For instance, sleep paralysis, or the experience of feeling paralyzed while still aware of the outside world, is reported in up to 40 percent of all people and is linked with vivid dreamlike hallucinations that can result in the sensation of floating above one's body. A 2005 study found that out-of-body experiences can be artificially triggered by stimulating the right temporoparietal junction in the brain, suggesting that confusion regarding sensory information can radically alter how one experiences one's body.

Parkinson's disease patients, for example, have reported visions of ghosts, even monsters. The explanation? Parkinson's involves abnormal functioning of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that can evoke hallucinations. And when it comes to the common experience of reliving moments from one's life, one culprit might be the locus coeruleus, a midbrain region that releases noradrenaline, a stress hormone one would expect to be released in high levels during trauma. The locus coeruleus is highly connected with brain regions that mediate emotion and memory, such as the amygdala and hypothalamus.

One good article among many- www.scientificamerican.com...

This doesn't make what you experienced any less real, it just puts a different perspective on the root cause of the experience. The research is sound and peer reviewed which means that the results are able to be independently reproduced but you're welcome to believe that God, Bigfoot Fairies or Vampires caused it if it gives you comfort, so long as you aren't thrusting it upon someone else who isn't interested in that interpretation. Atheists and agnostics really don't care what you believe. What concerns us, is the poisoning of the well so to speak as well as the condemnation of a system or philosophy that you disagree with which is entirely contrary to anything "Jesus" is alleged to have preached.

The incredible being that you find yourself drawn to that loves you just as you are is soooo perfect that you feel like slime, even a saint or a super caring person would feel that way. G_d doesn't need to judge you, you do it, whatever your beliefs. Faced with the truth and perfect love, you need a friend at that moment or you'll run away into the dark to avoid the love that you feel you don't deserve.
Good luck

I always love when someone with as much faith as you profess to possess starts to reinterpret that faith and go off script with your own brand. If you're a Christian then you follow the good book. If you're not following the book then your proclamations of Christian religiosity are just that, your personal proclamations. They have diverged from the tenets of faith to such a degree that its just a mish mash of aspects you choose to keep for yourself and so e new age Mumbai jumbo that is so diluted it resembles neither. The entire sensation and experience you are describing is entirely related to the above biological and chemical responses.

For the record, I have no delusions that anything I have staed

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: ProfessorChaos

Whether or not the OP feels that she deserved it, or not has no bearing on the motives of the assailant(s). As I said, rather presumptuous.

You really want to label me as "presumtuous" don't you? LOL! Why is that?

Reading comprehension, my tin foil hatted friend! The OP has nothing to do with the motives of the assailant. It does, however, have everything do with trying to evoke fear of retribution, from God, and punishment in the hereafter.

Then as she was stood in a barrel as they had been and the chainsaw turned on her….. tell me atheists did she cry out? Would you? Could she, would she pray as she was the one who was responsible for prayer being forbidden by little children in schools ?

Blame! First of all, no one is forbidden to pray. Little children can pray all they like. No one is forced to pray in public school any more, thanks to atheists.

And, the OP has everything to do with PROSELYTIZING.

At that moment you realize there's something more BUT are you too late, have you done too much damage? Would you be welcomed to your real home? Faced with the real deal what would you say? I doubt you would say anything imho, more likely you'll run and hide in the dark and say over and over to yourself that this isn't true….

Preaching like that; "It will be too late!", and warning us, "Have you done too much damage?"! Insinuating that his his God won't let atheists "back home".

In reality, in that situation most people would pray to their assailant. Praying "I'm sorry", "Please forgive me", and "Please let me go"..................Not to some God that they never believed in,.

You quote the OP as though they were the killer, and use that as evidence of Christians killing this woman.

That isn't being presumptuous? Would you prefer that I say you're making an unfair generalization against a particular group of people?

What the OP wrote actually has no bearing on the crime itself; you've simply used it to demonize a group of people, by implicating them in this crime, based on zero evidence. I'm sorry, but citing the morbid remarks of the OP doesn't qualify as evidence.

My reading comprehension is fine, thank you.

a reply to: seentoomuch

A few years after the event, Pliny wrote a friend, Cornelius Tacitus, describing the happenings of late August 79 AD when the eruption of Vesuvius obliterated Pompeii, killed his Uncle and almost destroyed his family.

You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men; some were calling their parents, others their children or their wives, trying to recognize them by their voices. People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying. Many besought the aid of the gods, but still more imagined there were no gods left, and that the universe was plunged into eternal darkness for evermore.

The Destruction of Pompeii, 79 AD

According to Pliny, more people lost hope of a god than not.

a reply to: ProfessorChaos

You quote the OP as though they were the killer, and use that as evidence of Christians killing this woman.

No I didn't. You're being very presumptuous!

My reading comprehension is fine, thank you.

Well, you're not comprehending my words, and you seem to be missing the words of other posters who have also complained.

BTW, I'm not going to derail this thread by listing Christian atrocities, murders and genocide!