I've always found funerals to be insulting and off-putting.  I think, like so many other things, religion tells us we have a problem, offers us a solution, and then tells us it has a fix for the new (very real) problem we have because we believed we had a problem in the first place.

Funerals, in theory, are for people to say goodbye to someone they cared about, and to connect or reconnect with others in their circle.  Putting a religious spin on it just creates divisions.  It would be a lot better, IMO, if they were secular, and people could have their own private religious moments if they so desired.

Then again, I'm asking people to give up acknowledging the thing they claim is the biggest draw about religion... where you go when you die...

Yep.  The more I learn about the human psyche, the more I realize how powerful social convention is.  You're exactly right.  Explain most religious practices in detail to someone who didn't have religion or social ties to that group, and they'll sound pretty crazy.  It just goes to show how strong is our need to be part of the group.

Matt, you would not believe just how weird it can actually be, but then again you problably do. My wifes stepmother is this nut who goes to every funeral baptism wedding etc that she can as long as it is in a Catholic church. I think I have told this story before, but I will repeat it here. she is also the nut that ran after  bill clinton when he was on a jog in houston and screamed at him, " We don't want scum like you in our neighborhood" it was on CNN.

yes, religion is just plaain weird, and it is just plain obnoxious as well.

yeah, the secret service ran up beside her and then her husband ran up, his name is Wayman Chunn, and they put Stun guns right up to his neck. I know it might sound like I am name dropping here but you should google this guy, he is a puredee fruitcake.. he actually bragged to ;me that he killed an abortion doctor but they would never be able to prove it. I totally realize that this sounds like some nut talking shit, but look it up. I hate this guy and I don't give a shit what I say about him.

There are a lot of human behaviors I find bizarre sometimes, religious or not. Dancing, for example, is a pretty strange behavior if you think about it.

But, yeah, religious rituals take the cake. And, oddly, the more showy it is, the less bizarre it seems. Watch some televangelical nutcase hopping around and speaking tongues and, yeah, it's weird but you sort of expect it so you're not surprised. Watch a show like The 700 Club, however, where they are all calm and dead serious and you actually start to get scared. For some unknown reason (probably something akin to the inability to look away from a horrible car crash) I watched a bit of The 700 Club tonight. It was really disturbing to watch these people talk about how this weekend's Global Day of Prayer "will help usher in this end times revival" with huge smiles on their faces. Are these people for real?!

Hours later I'm still trying to shake the creepy feeling.

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/372015.aspx

Religious funerals are really insulting.A few months ago my step-bother's best friend died in a terrible car accident. He wasn't religious at all, but obviously there was a pastor at the funeral. Apparently he barely talked about the deceased and spent most of the time trying to sell jesus and implying people there would be going to hell otherwise etc. Somehow I'm not surprised that he would have such disrespect for the deceased and everyone else. What did theists ever know about living.

Sounds exactly like a Baptist funeral I went to last year. My brother-in-law's wife's mother died in a freak car accident.

If I hadn't been sitting with in the front of the church in the family section, I would have walked out about 10 minutes into the pastor's lecture (and it was a lecture). I can't recall every bit of insanity that came out of his mouth, but the two things I remember were 1) the woman wasn't really dead (he must have said this 5 or 6 times...I guess he hadn't seen the death certificate yet...) and 2) all nonbelievers are going to hell.

And that was only about 10 minutes into an hour-long diatribe.

Religion is weird.

Check out This_thread I just posted for another example of the extremely weird and downright insane behavior religion can inspire.

Hey, Kaab, way off-topic here, but were are you in AK? I was born and raised there, 'til I was 37. (No, not Anchorage. I spent my army years at Ft. Richardson, and so I lived in Anchorage for a few years, but got the hell out of there as soon as I was discharged.)

Anyway, just to contribute to this thread:

This weekend, my wife & I went to spend a day in Amish country, in mid-Ohio. Talk about strange things done in the name of Christ. No electricity, still drive buggies, no mirrors in the house, no education past the eighth grade. At least they let their kids go out on rumspringa.

It was beautiful and peaceful, though.

a thought occurred,

anybody ever notice the communion ordeal (bread and Wine, probably laced w/ mind numbing substances) as a way to lure people into Jesus's word? I bet none of them were sober after taking the bait and could not tell whether he was for real or not.

That's how Christianity really got started! weird.