What type funerals do atheist have or request? I have had my first experience and it is horrible. Please tell?

I have instructions enclosed with my legal will to NOT have a funeral. I do not believe someone needs to make 10 grand off my family just because I kick it. With tht being said, I will be cremated after my organs are harvested. Then, there is to be a memorial where my friends and family can be together and share their stories. Then there is to be a moment of silence where my friends/family of various religions can acknowledge my passing in whatever manner they choose or their faith that comforts them. The memorial isn't for ME (I'll be long gone). It's for them to find peace.

You are making a lot of assumptions about what "funeral" is supposed to mean, and judging people who may have diverse traditions. The only purposes of a funeral are to give people a chance to witness the corpse, and to get used to the fact that he/she is no longer among them. If the corpse is torn up or the family don't want to let people see, then that part is omitted. In some countries there is a party which is a defiance of the power of death and a division of the deceased's property. In the USA there are almost no guidelines on what a funeral should be or how it should be conducted.

Your position is awfully selfish. A person has died, a family is bereaved, and you are whining because they are not catering to your immature expectations. I tell you what: you say to the family members "I offer my condolences." Can you memorize that? That is your responsibility to them. At least then they will think you are basically polite. They don't have any responsibility to you. None.

Every situation is different. I'm sorry you felt short changed but it's impossible to please everybody. There are many factors to consider: First, the wishes of the deceased, the available funds, who's going to attend, what's the weather like, etc. It sounds to me like it was an affordable, dignified situation. You should be glad that there was anything besides a cremation. It proves that your friend or relative was loved. I give props to those who took care of the details. Me, I only care about getting cremated cheaply and quickly. Embalming and viewing is unnecessary and expensive. It also can't bring the deceased back to life. It's best to remember people as they are in life, photos and video. A lifeless husk is kind of creepy anyway.

I highly recommend you listen to "Fancy Funeral" by Lucinda Williams. It echoes my sentiments exactly.

I gather you mean that this was the first funeral you have been to. Western funerals are horrible things, very depressing, full of sorrow, very mournful etc. This is all down to the churches for their teaching is so full of doom and gloom and when it comes down to the most important question of all, life after death, they will not give a definitive answer.

Viewing of the body is usually down to the family, unless being advised against by the undertaker due to the deceased being badly disfigured due to being burned. Sometimes viewing a body may not be such a good idea for when I went to view my brother I got the shock of my life for he looked nothing like he did in life and it took me a long time to get my head around it.

What you have described is a normal Western funeral; a cheerless depressing thing. Instead of being a celebration of the life of the person and acknowledgement of them moving onto a better place, it is a horrible, horrible thing.

Sense they don't believe in an afterlife they should be liquefied in order to be environmentally correct. And sense it's only there body sense they don't believe they have a soul it should be alright for them to be flushed down a toilet to be recycled into waste management so that our lakes and rivers can benefit from them and for the use of drinking water..

Think about all of that carbon that was release in the atmosphere because some selfish Atheist decided to get cremated.

Plenty of people get sent off that way, some not by choice. They are just as dead either way, makes no difference at all to the dead person.

"viewing"

Personally I don't enjoy watching dead people do nothing.

Personally, I want a mariachi band and then a choir of midgets doing an a capella rendition of "My Way" before they shoot my ashes into the heart of the sun. Instead of coffee we'll serve mandatory tequila shots.

I'm specifying for mine to be in the woods with everyone wearing neon colours. If I die young.

If I'm older, I'll ban black at the funeral and probably still get buried in the woods.

I'd prefer they use as many body parts as possible, after that I don't care what they do with my body... but being sent to a body farm sounds delicious...

But a wake for my friends would be cool...

IMHO

Norman Bates got it right