[Cooker]

I guess the biggest loss I have had was when my Grandparents died. I don't think that had much influence on me, since I wouldn't leave Christianity for some time after. Two somewhat more traumatic events where when I was young, my best friend's younger brother was killed in a boating accident and a neighbor of mine that had cancer very young died when it came back when she was roughly 12 (I was a little younger than her).

I think that one of the things that pushed me away from religion and God was having my own kids and imagining all the lost promise of children. I can't imagine a God that constantly watches over us would let children starve, suffer, be molested, and be murdered. Even to a lesser extent I am unsettled when I see a child in an unfortunate situation (uncaring or incompetent parents for instance) in which they will bbe very fortunate to end up anything but a crimial. A large portion of our fate (probably all of it) is simply random chance and that fits better with no God than a Christian God. I don't buy the fact that we are all born cursed with original sin any more than I feel as though I should take some sort of responsibility for slaves my ancestors might have owned (I am a mix of fairly poor white southerner and 1/8 native american, so I think it is unlikely my ancestor owned slaves though).

I still think a completely hands off God is a possibility, but I don't think there is likely to be anything like the Christian God.

I suppose it is comforting to feel like there is something after death, and that these souls have found a better place. I imagine death to be very similar to the experience you have before you are born. You simply don't exist, and you won't care. I wouldn't mind having my head frozen either if I can ever afford that. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]