My young daughter came home from school recently and asked me a question about death, a question that I’m sure most parents have had their children ask. She asked me what happens after we die. Well, I did something a little different, I told my daughter the truth.
When it comes to speaking to my daughter about death, I’m honest. I don’t tell her that when she dies that she will go to places like heaven or hell. I don’t tell her that she will see people like Jesus, Allah or Vishnu. I tell her the truth. And the truth is, lots of people believe in those places, and those people, but I don’t know what happens after we die and neither do they.
I’m an atheist and my daughter knows that. I’m not raising her to be an atheist or a believer in the supernatural. I’m raising her to be a skeptic and to understand that doubt is a better pathway to truth than faith. I’m raising her with the truth, even if that truth is “I don’t know.”
Matthew D. Hansen, Taylorsville
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