Are there non-religious funerals?

Sure. A funeral like a wedding can be whatever the parties involved ( family, wishes of the deceased ) want it to be. I want to be cremated and hope everyone will celebrate rather than mourn. Celebrate life, not mourn death.
Non-religious people can throw wakes, parties, and memorials rather than dismal and dark ceremonies.

Of course.

No. Atheists don’t die.

There certainly are.

I have been to many.

When my brother died, we gathered in his apartment with his friends and had a funeral of sorts. We reminisced about him and drank up his liquor, learned of others’ views of him, decided he was, indeed, a difficult person, but he had a lot of good friends who cared about him. It was the most sincere funeral I’ve been to. No religious remarks at all. He would have been appalled if there had been.

@Lightlyseared don’t be silly…. Atheists die too.
They eat their dead, though.

They are generally called non-denominational funerals and do not celebrate any religions. We held one for my grandmother. She was a firm non-believer. It was a lovely ceremony and based more around her and her life rather than how she was about to be accepted into [insert place one goes to after death for religion of choice here].

@Coloma
“Non-religious people can throw wakes, parties, and memorials rather than dismal and dark ceremonies.”
Anyone can do that regardless of race, creed or religion. Personally, being that I believe there is something after death I have even more reason to celebrate.

However, if you truly care about someone and they pass on, it seems incredibly apathetic to not feel sorrowful. That’s just human emotion. It isn’t dark, and it isn’t dismal.. but it is sad. I don’t see a problem with people celebrating life at a funeral, but expecting them to not be sad is sick.

@digitalimpression Maybe I should have said ” serious” instead of dark & dismal. I think something exciting awaits too, not necessarily “God” or “Heaven” but, our energy lives on in the cosmos. Of course people will mourn, but really, death is very natural and we are conditioned to fear it. I don’t see it as something to fear.

Yes. I used to do military funerals, and out of approximately 70, there were 2 funerals without a religious person there. Family members went up and spoke about the person, then they buried him.

I don’t actually know if they were atheists, but they intentionally removed all religious elements.