Meh. The thing I like most about being an agnostic is that no one can tell me what to do or say. Why do we need to constantly police one another over stuff that's just inane? Wasted time, effort and mental energy imo.

I don't believe passed away has religious origins. I know of dozens of colloquial expressions for dead and died because people don't like to say those words. Would you prefer "was called home to Jesus." because that's one of the ones I can't stand.

For what it's worth. I don't think the word we choose changes the fact that people die.

"Passed" meaning "elapsed" or "go" or "leave", "Away" meaning "not here" or "gone" or "absent"... Your claim of religious connotation is superceded by the simple grammatical syntax of the English language.

To be honest, most of the common sayings we use come from some religious background, even as far back as ancient Greeks.
So I really don't mind any kind of saying. I know what they mean, and that is all that matters.

I don't think its religious but even if it is why does that bother u. Nothing says others have to conform to ur way of thinking, just like nothing says u have to conform to theirs

". . .Passed away. . . We all know that the term came from religion"

Guess I am not a member of the set "all" as I was completely unaware of your definition known by everyone. I, raised a theist but figured religion was BS as a young person, figured "passed away." meant no longer living, dead, gone. I never assigned a supernatural component to this phrase.

I never had a problem saying someone has died. Dead. Fini. Croaked. Gonzo.

Use whatever works for you ...

How great of you to volunteer yourself as a censor I mean I have been someone to take the place of religion in this aspect.
And if you could please make a list of socially acceptable words and phrases for the atheist/agnostic believers ( is believers acceptable?) that would be great ??

Thank you and have neutral day ??

I don’t understand what is wrong with ‘passed away’, it does not at all imply that there is something after. Are you getting confused with ‘passed on’?

i don't care for the phrase myself but just as i will say omg without calling on a deity (and oh shit without ordering anyone to defecate) i don't actually mind passed away for religious or antireligious reasons. it bothers me more that folks can't just say DIE. i don't take passed away automatically to mean pass from one form of existence to another. it could as easily mean pass from being alive to being dead, the end. so on THAT level it doesn't bother me one bit. i just don't like euphemisms that must unless they're funny.

g

It’s always our choice to feel whatever we feel about what someone else says . Are atheist and agnostics starting their own set of what’s acceptable or not ? You are welcome to your feelings and thoughts, but the undertone is no different than that which you seem to be against. We are so fragmented, we are .

It is a softer word for death. Lighten up.

"We all know that the term came from religion, supposedly describing passing from moral life to eternal life in heaven or the alternative," is news to me. It's just a synonym for died.

True
Mid-90s, there was a crash outside my wife’s place of business. The mother, who was driving, was unconscious. As was the boy in the rear seat. The girl in the passenger seat was semi-lucid.
There were more than a dozen standing around the car. I went to the girl and asked if there was someone I should call?

“Yes.” This was before I had a mobile phone. I asked for a phone. I dialed the number and left a message.

“What is your address?” She told me. I returned the phone and drove to the address to find the father behind the house. “Come with me now!”

During the drive to the hospital, I told him to use my car phone (a big thing) to call everyone he thought should know. He called his pastor.

We got to the hospital before the ambulances. He and I were shown to a small room adjacent to the emergency room entrance.

Soon his pastor arrived. They spoke. And then, the pastor held out a hand to me and to the father and the father to me. It was prayer time. Who was I to deny them this moment of yearning for happiness?

I left as his family was brought in for treatment.

I stubbornly insist on using the term died, since I hate euphanisms and weasel words. Plus, I enjoy how much it makes so-called polite people( who would prefer I conform with modern terminology and say "passed" or "passed away" ) uncomfortable. Lets them know I believe that this life is all we have.

Passed away perhaps meaning past tense?

Just euphemism. I don't need to use cold clinical words just not religious ones.

I get where you are coming from. But to me "passed away" or "passed on" sounds a lot better than "they died" or "went on ahead" or all these other blunt terms. It's just one of those sayings that is a part of our embedded culture.

To each their own I think. Words like that only have power if you believe them. Otherwise you are just respecting the dead.

I do this to be polite. I never engage the stoopidity of believe during moments of sadness.

Personally, I think death can be such a hard subject, if someone feels better using the term passed on or passed away, I'm not going to judge them. Death is really final, there are no do-overs, and I'm all for grabbing whatever comfort you can until such time as you can find peace with the cold hard truth.

I was confronted with death suddenly at a rather early age. The euphemisms like passed away grated on me a little, but the outright denials like the condolence card that read "he is just away" really pissed me off. There are times you just can't sugar-coat reality.

I say passed beyond the veil. Thank you JK Rowling!

Do you have something you prefer saying???

It sounds much nicer than saying they "decomposed"!

What if we could "pass away" as a menu choice?

We got 7.7 billion. Humans are not going to die soon without divine intervention. That happens rarely.