Squeers, why would Christians object to their physical remains becoming blood and bone? They will become part of the natural world anyway, however they are disposed of, their atoms eventually being incorporated into millions of living organisms.

You seem to have a warped notion of atheists - not believing in gods or an afterlife doesn't mean we are not saddened by the loss of a friend or family member and can't welcome the opportunity to gather and remember their life. This is perhaps even more important for atheists than theists, as we have no expectation of ever meeting the deceased again.

It is easier to rant about religion or the lack of it than address our difficulty in coping with death. Most people are very uncomfortable at a funeral. As well, there are the 'significant' persons one hasn't bothered be in contact with (and nor they with you) and the people (who are they?) who just show up.

What interests me is the growing trend to seek solace from strangers on the Net. What is going on there?

If my relatives and friends can cope with it and I will have no final say in the matter, I don't want a funeral. I would be most happy with my remains being quietly taken away, placed in a cardboard box, cremated and the ashes scattered somewhere other than in the crematorium waste bin. If my relatives and friends want to get together later as they choose that is fine by me. We need to resolve things while we are alive.

< [the End Of The Film]

Lady Presenter: Well, that's the end of the film. Now, here's the meaning of life.

[Receives an envelope]

Lady Presenter: Thank you, Brigitte.

[Opens envelope, reads what's inside]

Lady Presenter: M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations....>

The Meaning of Life (1983)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085959/quotes

Ojnab,
being turned into ash is denying the Earth your bodily nutrients, but why scatter your ashes symbolically--symbolically of what?

A lovely passage, Poirot, that points to our deep sense of loss, while "the beautiful" is as mysterious as reason. Reason is unremarkable in its formulaic practice--scientific method; it's the qualitative, discriminating register, akin to aesthetic appreciation or sorrow, which underwrites empiricism, that's mysterious--which has been retroactively devalued since Kant et al. Today we take reason for granted as just a given, while aesthetics, sorrow and angst are dismissed by atheists as cultural constructs.
Einstein appreciated the mystery of imagination, which informed his achievements far more than method.

Candide,
I'm an atheist myself, or at least an agnostic.
I don't have any sense of atheists; it's just a word with no common denominator, apart perhaps from a common insistence that all phenomena must comply with physical law as we conceive it, or conceive it must be.
I'm intrigued by the "quality" of perception, of temporality and our "felt" preoccupations with beauty, goodness, fascination, sorrow etc., as well as their opposites. The universe is mysterious enough for me to accommodate infinite possibility, and that mystery only comprises what our senses permit us to appreciate. Given that wonderful as they are our brute senses are inadequate to appreciating phenomena intrinsically, what of possibilities they don't register at all?
The senses I have of alternative funerals and weddings are generally, hyperbole, hypocrisy and tackiness--not that I'm a fan of the religious versions.

Squeers, I must be lucky, the Celebration services I've been to have been good ones. As to scattering ashes, we did it with my parents because it was important to fulfil a promise we had made. We also like knowing that the last physical bit of them is somewhere that was very special to them. On a practical level, a box of cremated remains is not something I really want in my cupboard and I draw the line at putting them in the bin.

it seems worth noting..HOW CANDICE DRAWS THE LINE AT RUBBISH BIN
AND ONJAB...WITH A RITUAL FOR WHAT AS SQUEERS PUT IT SO SUCCINCTLY
[there must be something..disrespect..propriatrY..MAKING A MEMORY THAT ALLOWS OUR SOUL TO FEEL EASY[BECAUSE THE DEPARTED WONT BE PUTTING OUT THE rejected 'vibe'?

why is there respect for the dead[ON THE PERSONAL LEVEL]
I SEE PILES OF DEAD KILLED IN WARS..100,000..in single days
dead and dying every where[bring out your dead]..i seE the flue eppidenics..the small POX MILLIONS....dead..the unburIED..OR BURied in haste/for convenIENCE.FOR HEALTH REASON

and soon us poisenEd by the minions of satan..[UNLESS THE VATI-CAN BANKERS COME ALONG AND FIX THINGS..IE [BAil..out..the very ursurors planning our genocides]..ut]..

THE good fathers/heavenly MONEY..IS PAYABLE IN SEEDS FROM THE TREE OF LIFE...MONEY YOU CAN EAT[SEE REV 22;2]..THE LEAVES..=NOTES/MONEY..THE SEEDS ARE COIN/PROMISING SEED..SEED YOU CAN REFINE INTO 38.097 DIFFERENT FRUITS

[DOING ANYTHIng from keeping the living alive..to paying out in assured value..repair insurance feeding healing..preserving..any contracted terms hurting the living..but due in full AS AN HONORARIUM TO THE DEAD.

we are all the mortal living heirs [children of the father]..
co heirs of everything..gods gift is seed money..TO AVERT ARMOGEDDON..SUN TREATY..[see wikiseed/wikigeld..

we comE TO SAVE THE URURORS BEFORE THEY PANNIC AND BEGIN WWW [WORLD-Wide-war..to HIDE PROOF OF THEIR ONGOING TREASONS..BY THE DISEASE/WAR PESTULANCE ETC..EVEN NOW[the endtIME ONE/NUKES..[A NICE CLEAN ENDING..FOR US SO OBSESSED WITH OUR MORTAL BODY IMAGE..WE REFUSE TO LET..OUR MORTAL FLESH DIE

ANYHOW TO AVERT ARMOGEDDON..YOU PETER..MUST PULL OUT THE JOKER CARD
pay ALL DEBTS IN FULL/WE TAKE YOUR COIN/OVER PRINT IT as paYABLE IN WIKISEEDD..MONEY You can eat,,from the goldren horn of plenty[wrought out of the sacrifiCE..BY THE FORBeasrance of tHE HOUSES OF LEVI AND ISsiah]

AHH MEN..DO THE WATCHMEN HEAR
AWAKE TOO LATE....WHAT NEWS GREATER THAN WORLD WIDE ARMOGEDDON
BUT PEACE HAS COME..AND GODS children..are PAYING..for all of IT IN CASH.

Candide, I am confused with your answers, my ashes to be scattered and blowing with the wind for some reason was not to your liking, but in your next writing you are talking about your parents or grand parents being scattered.
Nice to see Banjo Paterson (ojnaB) the poem of our forebear, both yours and mine.