I don't think it's bad to say. I have been dead. It was blissful. Rest in peace to me means, your fight is over you may lay down now. It doesn't necessarily mean "have a good afterlife". I prefer it to "well poof you gone!" Or "you're in a better place".

It's a tradition nothing more, and it saves a lot of agro at funerals

Regardless of belief it's been a method of connecting to people who were loved. We all liked actors and musical artists that have passed and it has become a universal standard of remembrance. It's harmless so why put so much energy into dispelling it?

Yes. Dirt naps are the most restful things ever.

I don't see it as pandering to false hope. I see it as acknowledging that life before death isn't 2nd essarily peaceful, so we want our loved ones to have whatever peace can be found in their afterlife.

You can say RIP instead of the full phrase. That way, in their mind it's "Rest in peace" and in your mind " it's rot in peace," I say this tongue in cheek, because I feel bad about any loss to others and wouldn't really feel that way.

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.

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.

Its personal. I have not said that to anyone.

It;s just a way of speaking No mental activity required.

Agreed we should change it to RIP. Rest in pain.