Talking to children about death 2

I commented on the Lifehacker article by replying to someone who quoted Sagan's explanation to his daughter, who referred to her father's 'scientific' world view:

Less a 'scientific' worldview and more a materialist one. Sagan could not pretend that he was a-religious. His religion was that material was all there is and mind/person is a (mere) epiphenomenon of matter. Life therefore has no purpose or meaning, and is merely a particular arrangement of matter. Death and life are thus equally and our lives, lived dense with existential meaning are not differentiated in any real way from the void of death. Bleak.