Even when I was a believer I always wanted to have my remains cremated and placed in a specific area and while I was a believer I also knew people who did the we need this coffin so 'god' can get you to 'heaven'. I now like even more of what scientists have said and a couple of people have written about on here more than what I did when I was a believer.

As a child, about 4 years old, I got "saved". Then, taught to say my bedtime prayers and talk to God. I still remember one night I said my " Now I lay me down to sleep .... Then, God bless ... {and began my list of everyone I could think of}. After my list of asking blessings for those, I said "thank you God for saving me, and forgiving me and all that good stuff but I am just not interested in living for ever." I said," It just seems it would be boring. Lastly I said, "it would like to meet you [God] before I die."

Long story short I was about 30 years old doing what I thought was the Christian thing of spiritual warfare in prayer and fasting against the Masonic Lodge secret religion racist devil worshiper governmental terrorist European invaders (biblically the principalities, powers and wickedness in high places). In the end of my battles I met God and found out Jesus is angelic lord of host Lucifer the devil leading the Masonic Lodge secret religion racist devil worshiper governmental terrorist European invaders raping this land from my ancestry calling them such but not limited to Mexican, Indian and Native American with their establishment of the mark of the beast-666 begun with requiring birth certificate, social security card and photo identification for taxation and government control.

I no longer consider myself Christian and now I just sit and wait until I get to die. I don't consider myself suicidal but there is not hope to be able to enjoy brick homes for everyone on Earth built by true masons free from mortgage, free from rent, free from taxation, free from governmental terrorism and free from religious oppression and kill anyone in true justice that opposes it. And, no hope to be able to see an educational institution on every street corner. So that all human animals, being as people-monkeys are the most intellectual capable creature known that could enjoy the fullness of all knowledge, understanding, wisdom, skill, craft, trade and college certification of any kind free from tuition, free from any loans and free from any fees and kill anyone in true justice that opposes it.

For brevity i will stop here. 100 years from now we will all be dead and then a few billion years from now the Sun will explode or expand into a red giant star and burn up evey thing on Earth and no life would be here that would have to worry about anything then.

I think the traditional Christian teaching about souls going to heaven or hell should be thoroughly purged from all levels of our minds so that we give the teaching no further thought or emotional energy. It is an unworthy desire to be ensconced in some perfect place of otherworldly bliss. Maintaining that baggage saps a person’s energy and happiness.

In his book October Sky about growing up in a small mining town, Homer Hickam tells of a conversation he had with a local preacher. Homer asked the preacher what happens to us when we die. I was amazed and delighted by the answer: “Can you handle the truth? As long as one of us is alive we are all alive”.

We need to stop thinking about our individual selves and identify with the greater reality of which we are a part. Yes, there is a heaven and we are in it right now. The individual self is an illusion.

Your premise is faulty. Most people I know who are religious are terrified of dying. The response you got is a way they must say to cope, this is due to the Pavlovian conditioning of their brainwashed delusion. Otherwise, their brain would go into shock due to the incongruity of the situation with what their subconscious really feels, a panic due to insecurity of everything they have been conditioned to believe. Contrary to rhis, those non believers know that death is a part of the natural cycle of life, of course nobody welcomes death from you or a loved one, but there's no ulterior torment once death happens other than the normal grieving due to absence of a loved one. Instead we celebrate the positive deeds that we all had during our existence in this planet.

When my ex died, of course I missed him, (we remained friends, after divorce), I felt lonely without him. I know he's not waiting for me on the other side, we had our time. Of course, if anyone would go to great lengths to prove me wrong, it would be him!! So far, nothing! Lol!

NO

                People's reactions to death are often firmly entrenched in their own loss.  The idea or belief in life after death is I think about comforting the living.  I dislike funerals as too many of them like much of societal mores are about pretending.  Pretending to like people you hardly ever see, pretending the family is united in their grief.  Pretending that somehow the ritual has meaning to the dead.  I prefer celebrations of life were a group speak to the truth of that persons life and find comfort among people who loved the person.  The obligation of a thing often destroys its meaning.  I personally believe in some form of afterlife.  But what that entails I have no concrete proof or idea of.  I simply choose to believe.  Largely as it makes me feel good.  Plus its a fun exercise of my imagination.  The conceit lies in all ways when people choose to not only hold to an idea about an unprovable question, but define a part of their identity so strongly that they see others as less then, less intelligent, less worthy of respect.  Less human for their belief or lack of.  Does a person who chooses to err on the side of no afterlife have some window into the nature of death others do not?  Its a tired subject I know.  
                I think though the real question is how do you deal with death in a healthy way?  Through a ritual and personal idea of what that persons death means to you and how to process your life moving forward without them present?  Do you look at your own perspective and are you honest about your part in their life?  Forgive yourself for things unsaid, unspoken.  How do you for example close the book on their part in your life.  This too me is a highly personal question and lies outside of the conceit in either direction about the nature of the question of a afterlife.  Like so many things in the end it is about the individuals best pratice towards a healthy resolution both for others but more importantly for themselves.  Socities quickly fall apart if their members are not resting on a firm foundation of emotional,mental as well as physical health.  And how we deal with death is an important part of that equation.  Not how we judge others answer to that question.

Believers in an afterlife have a host of condolences to say to a grieving person, but I struggle with consoling others after the death of someone they, or both of us, cared about. You can't really tell a grieving person that it's going to be ok, time will lesson the heartache. These things may or may not be true. They won't be appreciated when someone is agonizing over a death. At least your loved one is no longer in pain isn't always the right thing to say either.

Life after death seems like a mystery to me and I really can’t place any meaning to that but I’m open to enlightenment.

Bake them cookies for a wake ....wash their dishes so they can cry in bed or the bath room with runny mascara or a skipped shave....be helpful and mourn as you will if you miss the dead bound for the grave

The one thing I can agree with from the bible : In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Do I feel worse about death then some who believes? What do you mean by feel worse? I grieve that the person is gone, I cherish the memories that we shared, but I doubt that even the believer totally believes that they will be with, see that person in the afterlife. A personal experience, having a sudden cardiac arrest only solidified the belief that death is the end and there is nothing more.

I don't see how believing energy survives past the physical being has anything to do with religion. It has nothing to do with sky daddy or the bible

No, that doesn't mean they are not missed.

As a child, I was worried and frightened by death, and I believed what I was told about the Christian afterlife. As an atheist of mature years, I now mourn my loss of those who have died ("Send not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." ), but I now also accept the finality of death.

It seems that some people need the crutch of the promise of an afterlife, but other people do not.

To answer your final question, my answer is "no".