*For Non believers* Not being funny...but?

Question

where do Atheists have their funerals? Like every other relgion has it in a church or temple or have some kind of ceremony but...where do you...what do you do? I'm just curious and not trying to shoot anybody down.

Answer 1

You just have it at the funeral home, although you could always have some sort of memorial gathering later, without the dead body sitting there. You can have friends and family speak about you, and funeral directors are able to do a non-religious type of funeral service. When it comes down to it, any funeral is just a way for people to say goodbye, to have a bit of closure and to celebrate and remember the life of the person they knew.
I understand your curiousity and appreciate that you asked your question with respect. If more people were like that, there'd be a lot less trouble in the world and a lot more understanding.

Answer 2

Not an athiest, but it seems simple enough. Funerals are ceremonies to remeber, honor, and cherish your loved ones, and as a means to say good bye. They occur whereever familes are comfortable; be it in a church, personal setting, or funeral home. They are for the living, not the dead. The burial is primarily for sanitation reasons, but to cope with death, all of us need a process by which to allow a person to pass; regardless of your spiritual beliefs.

In fact, funerals are not religious at all. In the bible, when jesus asks a man to join him, he replies he will, but first he needs to bury his father. Jesus advises to focus on the living, and lead the dead sort themselves out. Because spiritualism often deals with the afterlife, funerals do associate with religion. But this is secondary to the living saying goodbye.

Answer 3

My wake will be at a non-denominational funeral home. My last will and testament dictates that I want to be buried at sea so I would assume that the funeral will be on a boat. I would prefer to be placed on top of a stack of wood doused with gasoline, set afire, and pushed out to sea. But my wife thinks that may not be legal. At the very least I will be cremated and the ashes spread out to sea.

I told my wife no religious ceremonies at all! But then I usually digress and tell her that if she thinks it will make her feel better, then she can have a funeral with priests. I will be dead so I do not care.

Answer 4

I'm a registered organ donor so hopefully a fair chunk of me will end up doing some good for other people.

Then I'll be cremated in a non-religious ceremony with my favourite piece of music playing. So the answer is - a crematorium.

I have left instructions for my ashes to be scattered at the foot of England's highest mountain which is also on the banks of England's deepest lake.

Answer 5

How do you know what every other religion does?

Regardless of that, I would say the service takes place in the funeral home. I've been to many services at funeral homes that represent all faiths.

Answer 6

Many atheists adhere to secular humanism, and there such things as secular humanist funerals. It basically takes all of the boring hymns and scriptures out of the usual funeral, and replaces it with favourite poems, favourite songs, and excerpts from books.

Answer 7

I go to church for funerals like everyone else because in the UK Christianity is very liberal. I focus on the sentiments rather than the religious aspects.

Answer 8

I don't claim to be an atheist but i have no religion

We had our recent one it was held at a resturant..it was more of a celebration party and then ashes are put to the sea.

No traditional church or cemetery's like most

Answer 9

I'll be proped up beside the jukebox when I die. J/K
Probably in a church. My family's religious and my funerals for them.

Answer 10

why have a funeral?
Have a party at FRIDAY'S!!
you can come to, I'll buy the first round
burn up my body and scatter the ashes in a fishing creek
or the Detroit River