Considering we claim it's unlikely for there to be an afterlife in the majority of cases and most of us think death is just that, ceasing to exist. Should we still be saying RIP, isn't that pandering to the same false hope of those religious folks?
It's a tradition nothing more, and it saves a lot of agro at funerals
I think resting in peace is fine, especially if your life was full of suffering at the end. Cancer, Alzheimers, or other health problems, death is personal peace, an end to suffering. Does not have to have anything to do with what you believe comes after.
Just what we need, the PROPER PHRASE POLICE........They're dead, say something comforting to the family ferpetssake.
"Wanna cookie?"
What if by some stretch of the imagination, the energy that leaves a person's body when they die was constricted somehow? Where does the energy come from that creates a deformed fetus? Aren't storms created from colliding energies? So couldn't a person say with uncertainty to the deceased...RIP? There is certainly...uncertainty in the world at every level!
An alternative view on "rest in peace" is actually like a prayer of the believer wanting the recently departed to "stay dead and not come back to haunt him" in any way. Don't be moving around any and just stay motionless in the ground. RIP was taken later to mean you are "resting in heaven" but ideas of heaven have little to do with rest. RIP as something you are doing in heaven just don't measure up. It is all superstition.
I have no problem with RIP. There are physical remains, be they ashes or a body, and also the memory of the deceased held in the thoughts of those who remember him/her.
Here in Hawaii, ashes (or cremains) are often scattered in the ocean or on a lovely vista. Folks often say "Rest in Paradise" with Paradise referring to Hawaii, not a supernatural heaven.
I hope memories of me rest peacefully in the hearts of those who have come to care for me and wherever my kids choose to have any remains of me is a peaceful place.
Agreed we should change it to RIP. Rest in pain.