Exactly what will happen upon my demise

[DoctorTwo]

You will have noticed the title is a statement not a question. What is certain to happen is you lot and all this will cease to exist.

I'm not trying to be mean, but that's just the way it is.

lol so non believers have never been bereaved or faced a terminal diagnosis?

i've faced plenty of bereavement and just last year had carcinoma found in my breast and did have a real head spin/personal mortality moment.

i find it rather cynical to use people's bereavement as a pa attack and silencing technique.

and i hate disingenguousness and hypocrisy which is a large part of why i am not a member of any religion.

just to be clear i didn't answer your question because there is no way i want to discuss such personal and deep stuff with someone cynically deploying bereavement to silence or constantly asking question and only looking at the answers for ways to fire at someone. it isn't the right climate for discussing consciousness and our reflections on life imo. i certainly have no desire to share my life experiences and reflections on a thread where someone who claims to be a believer uses my grammar as an attacking and silencing strategy.

I don't know, and wouldn't want to guess at the circumstances of the OP. But her/his posts were pretty aggressive and confrontational -- 'that isn't a question' 'afterlife bollocks' 'damaging and childlike'. These aren't neutral phrasings. On the contrary, they look pretty like picking a fight.

I don't want, personally, to get into a fight with the OP. I think if s/he had posted such sentiments in the bereavement topic they might well have caused great distress to people who find comfort in their grief from 'afterlife bollocks'. But it's a free country, and s/he had the right to post her or his remarks wherever s/he liked, and be offensive if he or she so wished. It's obviously better for her or him to post them here than on the bereavement board.

But it cuts both ways. It's also the right of anyone else who's a member of this site to call the OP (or indeed anyone else who posts on this or any other thread) on aggressive or offensive posting. That's freedom of speech too.

I apologise to Numptynamechange as I have clearly hurt him or her by mentioning his/her writing style. It is true that I have found it difficult to understand the sense of his/her posts because they are not very clearly written, and I suppose I thought that anyone who is prepared to be very critical of the childishness of believers should also be prepared to take criticism. I accept, though, that you found my comments hurtful and I am sorry I made them.

I have looked back at your posts and found that you entered the thread with posts that were specifically intended to be critical of both individual believers and organised religion. It is not quite true, however, that you were just talking over some philosophical ideas that interested you. Your first post was in response to one of mine about the nature of faith, and your subsequent posts all consisted of criticisms of belief and religion. That's fine. That's what debate threads are there for. But I think it's unreasonable to expect your opponents in the debate never to fire back questions at you, and always to leave you in the position of controlling the terms of the discussion.

Though I have addressed much of this post to numpty, some of it goes for other people posting on this thread.

" But I think it's unreasonable to expect your opponents in the debate never to fire back questions at you, and always to leave you in the position of controlling the terms of the discussion."

I am glad that you think this is unreasonable. Because it is what Dione always does. She fires questions, does not respond to the answers, and moves on to the next question.

And suggesting that anyone!would think it's OK to post such things on "bereavement" is just hideous. But, I am afraid typical of some people of faith, who think they have a monopoly on sensitivity, kindness and empathy.

^So you are guessing at the OP's circumstances^
an educated guess yes. I have been privileged to spend time with the bereaved and dying. Their empathy and support of eachother in these times is amazing. I have yet to witness any of them deem others in the same situation childlike or dangerous because of their faith or lack of such. The OP is free to put me straight if I am wrong about him not currently facing impending death or bereavement.

and by implication saying "there are no atheists on a foxhole".
I implied no such thing. Nor do I believe such a thing.

I do not wish to censor the OP, he's free to judge the dying and bereaved here. Just as I am free to call him on his bitchy attacks on them here. Not an attempt to close down the discussion, had it been so, it would have been unsuccessful considering I made those posts on pg1 of this thread.

Suggesting that anyone would think it's Ok to post such things on Bereavement is just hideous
I think anyone passing judgement on how people deal with their impending death or their grief just hideous regardless of where they post it. And I will say so.

Curlew you say that I fire questions and do not respond to the answers. I ask questions. Sometimes they are answered. What exactly is it you want me to say about the answers of others?

I see this has been going well while I've been gone.

I do not wish to censor the OP, he's free to judge the dying and bereaved here.

Written as though the OP was targeting the 'dying and bereaved'.

I noticed the pattern ages ago. Glad I'm not the only who has.

"do not wish to censor the OP, he's free to judge the dying and bereaved here. Just as I am free to call him on his bitchy attacks on them here"

Now that really is a bizarre thing to say!

This thread has nothing whatsoever to do with bereavement. Everyone is going to die at some point, so talking about "demise" is relevant to anyone and everyone. YOU made it about bereavement with an astonishingly irrelevant "question" in an attempt to shame the OP into shutting up.

It's clear that you don't ask questions because you want an answer - no, it's your way of challenging a point of view without actually coming out with an opinion of your own. Quite cowardly really.

That's how I read it Back. Who do you think the OP was targeting with his statement?
What pattern have you noticed?

"Targeting"

I rest my case.

Dione, I don't think I've ever said it. I felt people could make their own minds about the way you post. Clearly a number of people have come to the same conclusion.

No reason why you shouldn't post, but you will understand that I will take it less seriously when you do as I see attempts to derail and silence rather then genuine discussion.

As Hettle said we are all going to die and therefore it's relevant to us all.

No attempts to derail Back, but I do my best to silence bigotry. As Hettie said, we are all going to die and it is relevant to us all and I think that we should all be able to discuss death and what it means to us without being labeled lesser or dangerous because of our different beliefs on the subject.

On what planet is "why not post on bereavement" not an attempt to derail? And all that stuff about making bitchy remarks about the terminally ill??

Damn- why am I engaging again?? You win. The thread is dead.

And exactly where (direct quote please) has anyone said that people are "lesser or dangerous" because of their different beliefs on the subject?

Beliefs are only dangerous when or if they prompt actions that harm others.

Your desperation to have your (supposed) moral superiority validated, Dione, means that you are reading what you want to read, rather than what's actually there.

And kindly have the common decency to learn what the word "bigot" actually means before you sail off on your personal crusade. You wouldn't want to risk looking a bit on the thick side, now, would you?

Dione

If you ever want to have an actual debate instead of picking from a list of old lines intended to stop it then you know where we are. You can write well so I reckon you could do it if you tried.

An actual debate on what Back?

it's like hiccups isn't it. Once you get started you can't stop. Try drinking a glass of water when the urge comes over you.

Tell you want, Dione. How about you make a pact with yourself. Don't make any posts that require a question mark for the rest of the morning. See how you get on.

Why would I do that Curlew?

Crescentmoon- perhaps you could explain how the OP is judging and making bitchy remarks about the terminally ill and the bereaved? I've asked Dione and she on't say.

I have answered your question Curlew. Your only response to me has been to attack my posting style and suggest that I stop asking questions.

No, you haven't. You just said that in your opinion, expressing strong views about the absence of an afterlife on a "philosophy" thread was judging the terminally ill and the bereaved and being bitchy about them. Which is so odd that it can't be what you meant. Could you explain further what you meant?