Internet Christians celebrate death of atheist activist: 'He is in a much WARMER place'

Sixty-three-year-old atheist activist Rob Sherman died last Friday in Illinois when his plane went down, and Christians are responding in celebration, Patheos reports.

Sherman was a Green Party activist who spent much of his life advocating for the separation of the church and state. He was also a national spokesman for American Atheists, an organization that advocates for civil liberties on behalf of atheists.

When the news was announced that Sherman had lost his life, many Christian-identifying people took to the internet to express their joy that an atheist lost his life.

On a Facebook page associated with Sherman, someone named Richard Frankson from Skokie, Illinois wrote, "God 1 Rob 0."

On a local news article reported on the Patch, commenters were less than kind about Sherman's passing.

Commenters also wrote messages like, "Falling out of the sky can make a man religious real fast," and "He certainly didn’t have GOD guiding his flight. Oops."

Some people responded to commenters to express how upset they were by the content of the posts.

One person also noted, "I’m very active in my Church & faith & my only thoughts were how sad it was. I thought of how every Christmas season (whether they are believers or not) this what [his family members] will remember year after year after year after year. And, how terribly insulting to their loss, if any of them or their friends read [the responses]."

People also took over the Chicago Tribune's article about Sherman.