I hate that one too. "In a better place now" and maybe they just lowered the poor bastard into the hole in the ground. Then some wise person wanting to comfort declares "they are in heaven now." All of this out of the same magic book which also said that the dead know nothing. Certainly the brain washed living know nothing.

There is another side for a record but for a CD, no.

So you take the agnostic POV...which is fine!

@Robecology I'm an agnostic atheist. We don't know what happens when we die.

That's exactly what my late father said, after being a believing Catholic his whole adult life, when he cardiac arrested for a couple minutes the day after open heart surgery. He saw nothing but blackness during that temporary death. He continued to still attend Mass for a while, but he admitted that he no longer believed there was anything after death. Blackness, nothingness, same thing, there is nothing before and nothing after...

"We might expect"...if we're religious.

If we have a sense of science - if we're strongly agnostic/atheist... then we won't "expect" anything.

See Dawkins' Scale. You sound more like a weak theist than an agnostic.

Passed is like a kidney stone or taking a crap. I might start reminding people of that when I hear that Charlie has passed.

Does this mean I'm passable?

I used to feel much tne same way about saying "passed" insteaded of "died", and then my wife of 42 years died. In certain situations or at certain times when I feel particularly sensitive about her loss, I came to allow myself to describe her death as passing away. It feels less harsh and easier to say sometimes. Anybody listening knows what the term means.

We use plenty of terms that mean the same thing. The conventions of language and traditions within societies have selected preferred terms under various circumstances. We may say making love rather than fucking. There may be nuances associated with the terms but they both mean essentially the same thing. I think the same applies to the terms for death and I have softened my view when someone refers to the death of another as passing away.

@RussRAB Suit yourself. I've been widowed for five years, and for several years before that I watched my wife lose who she was to dementia, and then finally watched her body die. So I've more than earned the right to use whatever term I wish to for referring to someone's death.

@TomMcGiverin - I wasn't aware that my comments denied you your right to use whatever term for death you choose. All I was doing was asserting my right to use whatever term I choose - without having to be shamed for using someone's disapproved of term. Our experiences arent all that different with perhaps the exception of the timeline. My condolences on your loss. I do have some understanding.

@RussRAB You do you and I'll do me. We will each use different terms. I did not feel you were denying me anything and I militantly refuse to let anybody deny my right of expressing myself whatever way I choose. Your condolence is noted and accepted as genuine.