prologos, not sure what your point is... are you saying that all the mayhem is "good"?
Ucantnome, the answer is absolutely!
I was still on the fence when my dad died. My JW mom asked me on of the most difficult question: "Do you mean to say you do not think you will see dad again?"
Wow... hard one. I answered candidly that I in fact did not believe in the resurrection anymore. When push comes to shove, I cried my father's death believing I would never see him again.
In time, my mom had more trouble with his death than me. For me, death was well stated by Mark Twain, when he said,
"I do not fear death . I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience."
This of course, works well when we keep the person alive in our heart, as I have.
I'm very sorry to hear about the death of your friend's child. Maybe the parents will be better off with faith... I can't make that judgement call.
However practical faith is in those tragedies, I still think Bertrand Russell's quote is the best at the end:
"there can't be a practical reason for believing what isn't true. (...) Either the thing is true, or it isn't. If it is true, you should believe it, and if it isn't, you shouldn't. And if you can't find out whether it's true or whether it isn't, you should suspend judgment. But you can't... it seems to me a fundamental dishonesty and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it's useful, and not because you think it's true."
