Another point....

Because of these regressive religious assholes, when facing a terminal illness you have very limited options for assisted Suicide.

I wonder when he will realise the real implications of his prayers going unanswered...that there is actually no god to listen to prayers let alone act on them!. At the moment he’s angry with god but still hasn’t taken his thoughts process to it’s logical conclusion! The anger at god is probably a good thing for him at present as it will give him a outlet to vent his rage. Later that anger may turn on the religion itself that fed him such lies.

Yeah, my step mom was Baptist, and she was in the hospital with terminal cancer. Everyone else was doing the thoughts and prayers thing and I just looked her in the eye and said I love you. She knew I could not do the prayer thing and I am said to say I could tell that scared her as much as anything she was going through.

Heartbreaking. I think that when one person feels and shows love for another in ways that some God doesn't manifest, there would be no desire to include religion in your life after something like what he's faced. The realizations that all we have is each other, and that we can't depend on any help from above, are as stark as anything we'll ever come to understand in life but they also reinforce our love for family and friends. I want to say more because I'm going through the sudden loss of my dearest friend, but maybe I can do it later. All we can do here on Earth is love each other. I don't see that anything else matters.

Some times people have to come to the stark realization that either
A) there is no god
or else
B) There is a god and he is a totally evil sadist who enjoys inflicting pain either by action or inaction

Occam's Razor usually sorts that one out pretty quick

How much better to realize there is no god and to realize the suffering wasn't a penance of some sort (for anyone involved).
But than there would be no hope of an afterlife and for some that's even more unbearable.

Living life now is very important to atheists. We know it's one time through.

just for arguments sake--lets say there is a god, a wonderful all loving merciful god with unlimited powers over the universe. at the very best that entity is incompetent in allowing a person who believes to die a horrible death and not capable of interceding in her cancer
At the worst that entity knowingly gave that person cancer and wanted her and her family to suffer

The issue of suffering like this man's wife has endured brought plenty of believers to abandon faith in their religion. I believe prominent individuals like Bart Ehrman and I think Charles Darwin are among them. In Darwin's case, I seem to remember reading he struggled with the illness and death of his beloved daughter.

Unfortunately, the pain of loss is what gets a lot of people to wake up to the hollowness (stat holiness) of religion.

Such a sad email. I feel sorry for all his pain...

So sad.

Sometimes it takes a tragedy for people to see the truth sadly

I was already questioning the existence of a god when my girlfriend killed herself. I would ask for the god to let me know in some way if she was ok and to help my broken heart. Well, bupkis! Nada! Null set. And, my family TOTALLY did shit to help me thru it, which is one of the reasons I don't speak to those cretins either. My good friend across the street died December 16th of leukemia and I spend a lot of time making sure his widow doesn't go thru it alone. I sit on her back porch with her drinking just about every night. Only time will heal her broken heart, as was the case with me. Prayer is bullshit and changes nothing. If it did, the covid pandemic would be over. I'm sure loads of xtians are praying for it to end. Well, all powerful god of the universe, what the fuck are you waiting for? I'll bet all the jews in the concentration camps prayed too. Bupkis.

I hear you and I see where you are coming from. The horrible truth is that many people die without the dignity we would think they deserve. I have followed life stories of actors for many years and found this to be true. It was also true of my own mother and her parents. Religions do not want to tell you this.

I'm very sorry for your loss really hurts when you lose someone. I prayed for my and she still died.. I still pray because it's positive thinking and could be comforting to our souls ..I do believe we have a soul. I'm not necessarily believing in God. I'm agnostic ,,but I do believe we have a soul . But, I'm really sorry. Whatever works for you.. tnegative thinking sure doesn't work . But I can really relate to your grief.

My deepest sympathy.

The god thing is all make-believe.

Sad it took his wife dying to relize pray doesn't work. Hope he can find his way to freedom of religion.

I never thought about it, but watching my father die as a young kid may have influenced my atheism. It is not the reason I remember, but it could have been a subconscious motivator.

Sorry for you both

I don't get it. If their god is all powerful, kind and all-knowing, and controls everything that happens on this "plane", then that same god must have created the cancer that kills small children and formerly healthy adults. How do they reconcile this "goodness" with the evil it creates. The devil made me do it? God isn't more powerful than the devil? I don't know. I never read the bible, so maybe there's some sort of twisted logic that makes sense to the zealots, but I'm happy just to stick with theory #3.

My deepest sympathies to your schoolmate and her husband.