There are many compelling reasons to preplan a funeral, but if you are an atheist, you may find it especially necessary to preplan your funeral. If you want to ensure your funeral has a secular/humanist focus and not a religious focus, you may want to plan it well in advance of your death. While doing so, here are four issues to consider:
1. Body Disposal
Everyone who preplans a funeral has to decide what they want done with their bodies. As you are not religious, you may not want your body in a traditional cemetery, and more importantly, you may want your body to be donated to back to the community.
You can note everything on your pre-need including organ donation and whether or not you want your body donated to science.
2. Location of the Ceremony
One of the main reasons many atheists pre-plan their funerals is so their relatives do not hold a service in a church. If you are uncomfortable with having your funeral in a church or even the chapel of a funeral home, you can pick a secular location. For instance you could have your funeral in the woods or in another favorite natural spot.
In some cases, funeral directors may even have connections with reception halls here they can book your funeral.
3. Inclusion of Religious Elements
Although you may be planning your funeral in advance so you can retain control over what happens, you do want to think about the living to a certain extent. Your funeral gives your family and friends the chance to get together to reminisce over your life.
If your parents, siblings or other loved ones are religious, they may appreciate the inclusion of a few religious elements at your funeral. For example, you may want to include a Bible verse to be read at the ceremony as well as your favorite secular poems.
In other cases, you may want to include diverse elements from other religions or cultures just to help make your funeral interesting. For example, you may want to include elements from Buddhist or Norse religious ceremonies at your funeral. As an atheist, you can easily incorporate any religious traditions solely for their beauty even if you don't objectively believe in them.
4. Eulogy Presenters and Officiants
Finally, you want to specify who is going to be giving your eulogy and who is going to be officiating the service. In many cases, people have their religious leaders lead their funerals, but if you do not belong to a church, you may need to choose someone else. Ideally, you should choose a few people to fill the roles of eulogy givers and officiant just in case the people you select pass away before you.
For more information and ideas, contact Foran Funeral Home.
Share6 April 2015
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