What can an atheist say to a grieving friend?

What can an atheist say to a friend who is grieving the death of a loved one? Believers have a standard repertoire: “He’s with God now.” “I’ll pray for you.” “She’s in heaven now.”

As I’ve written before, I don’t really have a standard phrase to utter in those situations, but that’s probably for the best. I certainly don’t want to sound like a greeting card.

Greta Christina recently raised this same issue. She and her readers compiled a list of approaches for people who don’t believe in God. Her extensive list includes the following:

1. “I’m so sorry.”

2. “I remember when… /My life is so much better because of…”

3. “What can I do to help?”

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

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