Coping Without God: Death.

I'm watching a little bit of Can of Worms (it was the religion!) and they're asking how you help a child cope with death and grieving without God.

Maybe it's hard, to be told that there's no heaven, no nothing, no place where you will see all that you have lost. I don't actually know, because I've never for a second believed in heaven, or hell, or all that jazz. I don't believe in reincarnation, either, mostly because I know my karma's screwed and I'll come back as a dung beetle or something. No, I'm actually frightened that I'll come back as a murderer or a psychopath or someone who has been broken or something; I mean, as much as I complain about this life, it's not that bad, so why can't we just leave it at that?

Most people don't know this, but I had a brother once, a long time ago. I don't remember him; I was two years old when he died - he essentially had all my problems, but much worse. He'd be thirteen now, and his ashes are under a beautiful liquid amber tree behind a women's hospital that's taller than daddy, and to me, that's proof that he's happy, wherever he is, and that's how I find peace in that. Of course, perhaps this doesn't really count because I don't remember him at all, I never saw him grow, never spent time with him to make his death truly heartbreakingly painful.

I don't really know what happens after death. Sometimes I feel like my brother's watching over me, but not like a God; just a child, observing, watching a world he could have been a part of. I don't think he's physically up in the clouds dancing around with angels; the idea is silly to me. I don't think I'll ever see him in a physical form when I die, or truly know what he could have been like; but I'm of the school of thought that we are not purely bound to our physical form. His spirit is somewhere, but his body is unconscious and will never come back; I've accepted that. I don't think we'll ever meet, but I don't think he'll ever truly leave. But I guess I'll never know until I'm in a state in which I can't really tell you, eh?

I'm not afraid of death; it's part of life. I'm not afraid of me dying, and I know my mother would be a  seriously pissed off spirit if I had jumped off a cliff after her funeral or something. We all live and die for a reason, and whatever is after death, if there is something after death, will be what it is, whatever it is. To be honest, I'm kind of excited to find out what's after death; it's more fascinating than frightening to me. There are more things to be afraid of than death.