[Tony Snow]

DMZ,

Read the whole thing, as they say. Of course atheists feel pangs of emotion. They grieve, they laugh, they cry, they show up to hug and console. But when it comes to having something substantive to say, something that would provide consolation — that life has meaning; that one doesn’t simply occupy space for a time and then decompose; that there are great overarching principles that give life its depth, joy, texture and purpose; and that those principles arise not from artifice or practice, but from a Creator whose central principle is love — when it comes to making these arguments and more, the atheist must remain mute. They still can and do hug and cry. But they cannot argue that life is anything other than an accident and death, the end of everything...

[stuartcr]

Are you saying, that if one is an atheist, they cannot believe in something after death? If so, why?

[atlaw]

As a matter of curiosity, on the death of a child, how would a strict, fundamentalist Christian console an atheist (or, for that matter, a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Jainist, Jew, Sikh, Shinto, Gnostic, Wiccan, etc., etc.)? Perhaps something along the lines of — too bad your kid is going to burn in hell for eternity?