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[quote]
A 19-year-old University of California at Berkeley student died in an airplane crash last week while she was traveling to a soccer tournament in her home country of Pakistan, a school spokeswoman said Monday.</p>
<p>Misha Dawood was a student in the College of Natural Resources who completed her freshman year last spring and would have begun her sophomore year this fall, according to UC Berkeley spokeswoman Yasmin Anwar.</p>
<p>Dawood was on an Airblue Ltd. jet that was traveling from Karachi to Islamabad when it crashed last Wednesday, killing all 152 passengers.</p>
<p>Harry Le Grande, the UC Berkeley vice chancellor for student affairs, said, "The sudden and tragic passing of Misha Dawood is a tremendous loss to the Cal community. We extend our deepest condolences to her family and friends."</p>
<p>Dawood was a coxswain on UC Berkeley's women's lightweight crew team.
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<p>That really sucks for her. I mean, all that potential she had and all the hard work she put in coming to Berkeley and living there. Just wow.</p>
<p>yeah…damn that really sucks. Sigh sometimes you wonder why such terrible things happen to people who seem to have done nothing to deserve it. I guess if you’re atheist then you can say freak events have an equal chance of being able to happen to anyone, regardless of whether the person is “good” or “bad” (in quotes since good and bad are relative terms). But if you do believe in God, then you wonder why He/She/It would test his/her/it’s creations in such a way. I mean the free will excuse seems like a lame argument for why a Supreme Being wouldn’t prevent a good person with the potential to help people from dying in such a freak event. Sigh after reading that I am saddened even though I know freak events are a normal part of life.</p>
<p>Damn, this is sad. Do they know what caused the crash?</p>
<p>@Diivio</p>
<p>Not all atheists are non-religious (Jainism and Buddhism are nontheistic religions, so plenty of Jains and Buddhists identify as atheists). I, personally, identify as an atheist and a non-practicing Buddhist.</p>
<p>Also if you believe in karma (and thus reincarnation by default), you really don’t have those issues. Just someone is good that doesn’t indicate how much bad karma they harbor from previous lives.</p>
<p>Wow it’s events like this that make it all seem so real. That you could die at any moment. Sad imagining that one year ago she was in my position, picking and worrying about classes, worrying about dorming and roommates, excited about her bright future ahead. Rest in peace Misha, from one bear to another.</p>
<p>Everybody says that, but I don’t feel a connection with the people of Africa as I do with this Berkeley student.They’re only a statistic to me and I’m not being insensitive or anything. The day you cry for each and every person that dies in Africa just as you’d cry for a dead relative is the day you can bring up that argument.</p>
<p>Sigh yeah I know many Jains and Buddhists who classify as Atheist (and yes I thought about that reincarnation argument as well almost immediately after I posted that). I know my Hindu religion, but I’d say I’m more Deist. Honestly I am not getting into a religion debate but I personally think only either one of these three options about God is true:</p>
<ol>
<li>God is non-judgmental and perfect (Deist)</li>
<li>God is judgmental and imperfect (Most major religions except they say God is perfect and judgmental which is contradictory in it of itself (Too lazy to go into detail into why I think this on a forum page))</li>
<li>God doesn’t exist. </li>
</ol>
<p>Rest in peace Misha and, this might sound insensitive, but I hope something like that doesn’t happen to me.</p>
<p>bagelsbagels, stop being silly. In order for your argument to stand, you would have to be crying 24/7, even when you’re sleeping. Does it really make sense to be sad for your whole life? People die every few seconds. The reason Misha’s death is particularly saddening for us (READ: BERKELEY STUDENTS) is precisely because we are Berkeley students, and hence we have a sentimental attachment which forms an in-group connection. Basic psychology.</p>
<p>^she’s right you know, well imo. Just like gravity, sentiments for other human life wean as distance increases, both in terms of memory distance (how salient they are in your life) and in literal distance.</p>
<p>Oh and personally I’d prefer an cold hearted emotionless human being how doesn’t feel for others but goes to third world countries and actually tries to do stuff like teaching them sustainable living, and sending food/medication than someone who sits in a 1st world country just crying for them every day. I realize these are two extremes and there are in betweens.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that I agree with your definition of Deism there, but a brief look at Wikipedia suggests that my HS history textbooks may have misled me as to its nature, so I’ll leave it at…not quite agreeing.</p>
<p>And yes, the driving force behind our feeling affected more by the death of the Berkeley student (ideally) is that we should feel some sense of community and be saddened by the loss of a member of that community. I don’t personally feel this way, but I don’t think it’s worth judging the people I disagree with on it.</p>
<p>Deists believe in a “lazy” god, who creates the universe and then leaves the picture, more or less. That definition of deism doesn’t look right. Deists believe god doesn’t intervene in anything.</p>
<p>Most religions don’t call for a perfect god. A perfect god is something that mainly just the three monotheistic Abrahamic religions believe in. Outside of monotheism, most major world religions have imperfect gods.</p>
<p>anyways i am going to leave this thread now</p>
<p>This thread would devolve into a debate… I totally agree with how…haunting it is to think that this time last year she was packing up her stuff, excited just like me to be a cnr student, worried about making friends…plane crashes to me are just such an intense representation of that whole ‘freak accident’ thing that I just…ugh. my heart goes out to her loved ones.</p>