What happens after death for an atheist?

If it were not for this forced religion, children when they grew up would have one less thing to rebel against with such zest. I've always regretted that I grew up in a home where nobody gave a damn about religion one way or the other, and so I had nothing to rebel against and be deliciously superior about--nothing to congratulate myself about as compared to my ignorant parents. The only time I ever went to church was when a friend invited me to go to Vacation Bible School (Southern Baptist version). Neither I nor my friend paid any attention to the stuff they talked about. We were mainly there for the food and also to look at girls. We did get into some trouble, however, because in those days I and my friend were rather mischievous. We gave a hot foot to the preacher, whom I recall had excessively large feet, and we were accused of stealing the Kool-Aid and cookies (this was a false charge; it wasn't us).That was my only experience with public religion, and as a result I'm a Goddamned nihilist.I don't know why you are so upset about religion in these families. Why doesn't anybody ever mention something good that religious people do? I know this church where my stepson goes--you know what they do? They adopt kids who have no home, whose parents are in prison or dead or on Death Row. If not for this adoption, most of these kids would end as drug pushers and 5-dollar street whores. Do they teach them their religion? Of course they do. So what? It's better than the alternative.What happened, did a nun crack you on the head with a ruler when you were 11? You were probably a brat like me and deserved it.

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The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.---Milton

It does after awhile depend on meaning.After awhile, the enjoyment isn't enjoyable anymore.And it doesn't matter what kind of enjoyment we are referring to either--physical, intellectual, whatever.At least that's been my experience.And you know what the most horrible feeling is, which I hope you have never felt and will never feel?It is the feeling of the VACUITY of life, expressed well in the following verse:"Or as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations,
And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence
And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen
Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about . . ."
--T. S. Eliot

I've always regretted that I grew up in a home where nobody gave a damn about religion . . . Why do you say that? I was telling you the truth.I know this church where my stepson goes--you know what they do? They adopt kids who have no home, whose parents are in prison or dead or on Death Row. If not for this adoption, most of these kids would end as drug pushers and 5-dollar street whores. What are you calling "embarrassing"? These are the facts. Happens all the time. Visit a ghetto and see if you prefer that to "structure," even if it's religious structure. If you visit your local prison and quiz the inmates, I don't think that very many would tell you, "The reason I committed armed robbery was that my parents forced me to go to church." No, most of them came from homes that were shattered in some sense.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-07-2005 21:15 AM

It's not the religion per se that's going to help them; it's the structured disciplined life-style and having a family that cares about them--that will help them.Brain seems to be over-reacting immensely. He had to go to church--so what! Lots worse things than that.