In the past year I have lost my uncle and grandfather tragically. My uncle drowned in the Gulf of Mexico and my grandfather fell and hit his head. These were the first and only deaths of family members in my lifetime.

Through the week of my grandfather in the hospital there were numerous prayers and reassurances of “he is going to a better place”. I realize this gives people peace but how naive. My mother and father are the only two I have openly spoke to about my Atheism, but I know my grandmother suspects because I confronted here about a decade ago with some questions that made her very uncomfortable. I held their hands and participated in the prayer circle for their benefit not mine since I know that some of my family was more affected by their deaths than I was.

Most of all it highlighted the difference between my view and my family’s view of the afterlife. They say there is about 10 minutes of brain activity after your body dies, I believe this is where heaven exists. Time is relative and who knows what takes place inside your brain for those ten minutes. Those ten minutes could stretch to eternity, we have all experienced it while sleeping. You take a twenty minute nap but have a dream that seemed to last an hour. No one really knows if any of this is actually real, our brain tells us it is real but that is all relative.

Nothing is absolute, nothing….