Stan Solomon of The Talk to Solomon Show had an interview with an angry man, Gordon Klingenschmitt, who has his own empire of hateful rhetoric towards people he doesn't understand.
Aside from the men's obvious lack of understanding of what an atheist is, or even the purpose of a "chaplain" who isn't tied to a specific religion, they prove that they cannot follow their arguments to their logical end.
Suicide is present in all cultures, religions, ages, genders, orientations, and any other group classification you would like to throw in there. Christians are not exempt from suicide, nor are the arguments for suicide, inside the minds of those that decide to end their lives, a phenomenon specific to atheists.
But let's examine the thought process of this Solomon guy and see if we cannot flush out a more reasoned approach to his unreasonable words.
Most Christians believe in a literal heaven. At any funeral, no matter what faction of Christianity you belong to, provided the dead individual had followed the specific creed of that faction, no matter how nebulous in nature, they are said to have "moved on to a better place".
Yes. A better place.
Christianity believes that heaven will render a person's body perfect. All troubles will be gone. Tears of sadness will be replaced by cries of joy and worship of their god. Some literally believe that, as the Bible says, the streets will be paved with gold, while others even believe you will be afforded a mansion to live it up in. There will be no more death, no more sickness, no...atheists to make you afraid.
Heaven is the ultimate utopia, much like The United States of America, around the time of our Founding Fathers.
With that description of the afterlife, why wouldn't a Christian chaplain encourage a soldier to end it all. Better put, why wouldn't a soldier view the pending misery of the rest of their injured life, and decide that ending this life is the best option?
On the other hand, an atheist may believe that this life is all we have. I say "may believe" to differentiate those atheists that unequivocally claim there is no afterlife from those that just don't know, but decide not to worry about it. Either way, the view that our current life is all we have is actually a good reason to KEEP LIVING and make the best of it. We have nothing "better" to look forward to, potentially keeping us going.
That being said, anyone can and will commit suicide and will reconcile it in their minds however they want. Even so, an atheist is not immune to happiness, much like a Christian is not shielded from sorrow, depression, and lack of a drive to live.
That's all I have right now...
This is awesome!
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