RIP?

Ok, this has been nagging me for a while. Not really a big deal, just something I don't understand.

RIP - Rest in Peace

Where did this start and who really believes it when they say it? It indicates that upon death you simply lie there and rest. But I don't know of any belief system which supports that concept.

- If you are religious in any way, you believe that we move on after death. Maybe a good place, maybe a bad place but in neither would you be resting. Yet most religious people use these words (?).

- If you are an atheist, you have no belief system so certainly don't believe one would be resting. Non-existing perhaps or just don't know. But not definitively resting in your grave.

So the term just seems to be out-of-place. I'm a live and let live kind of person so not trying to stop anyone from saying it if it helps comfort them. But I just want to understand. It seems to come from the immediate conditions after death where people are put in coffins and portray an image of resting, but if there isn't a belief that people continue to rest then why is it such a commonplace saying?

Shouldn't it be Rest in Peace, for a while, then be awesome. Or something along those lines.

Or maybe it should be used for people when they retire instead of death? I certainly plan on sleeping in a lot and just chilling once I'm retired.

a reply to: bluesjr

Well you rest until judgement day, when you get resurrected. "May your grave be undisturbed until god calls you" would be the long version.
Also the fear of dead people with unfinished business, who come after you might have played a part in it becoming a spell.

a reply to: bluesjr

I don't believe in any afterlife/souls/gods claims so I've never used the RIP term.
I think it is ridiculous as well for the reasons you described. I don't believe in ghosts either so I'm only guessing here but maybe people who do believe in ghosts say RIP in the hope their dead friends/family don't wander as lost spirits or something lol

originally posted by: Peeple
a reply to: bluesjr

Well you rest until judgement day, when you get resurrected. "May your grave be undisturbed until god calls you" would be the long version.
Also the fear of dead people with unfinished business, who come after you might have played a part in it becoming a spell.

Thanks for that explanation. I wasn't aware of that belief. So everyone who has died to date has not gone to heaven or hell? Is that what that means?

Or does each person have their own judgement day?

originally posted by: Peeple
Well you rest until judgement day, when you get resurrected.

You believe that, don't assert it as fact because you cannot verify such a claim.

After somebody dies...

Words fall woefully short.

originally posted by: TJames

originally posted by: Peeple
Well you rest until judgement day, when you get resurrected.

You believe that, don't assert it as fact because you cannot verify such a claim.

I appreciate your responses, but hoping that this doesn't turn into a belief debate. Just looking for reasons for the origin of the saying and Peeple provided a good response.

Personally when I say it, I say rest in peace or rest in paradise, because I HOPE there is something after this life, and I hope it's peaceful and beautiful. I don't imagine them laying there for eternity sleeping or not moving, but I imagine their energy or their spirit receiving rest. Not having to keep up with the hustle and bustle of human life and the society we've created and the rules..... I hope their energy or spirits are free when they pass. For people who believe in Heaven, I imagine them in their own Heaven, maybe fishing, or relaxing in a hammock watching heavenly waves crash against the celestial shores, enjoying a margarita or something... Somewhere there is no fear, no danger, just euphoria. Does that provide some insight at least for how I view the phrase? I have no idea why or where it started however.

If there is nothing after death than my words don't matter anyways, and if there is, then I just hope it's beautiful.

-Alee

a reply to: bluesjr

That's exactly what it means. You're stuck on Earth sleeping/resting until the trumpets sound and it's all
GAME OVER

a reply to: bluesjr

Typing it into a search engine would be helpful.

en.wikipedia.org...

www.quora.com...

originally posted by: NerdGoddess
Personally when I say it, I say rest in peace or rest in paradise, because I HOPE there is something after this life, and I hope it's peaceful and beautiful. I don't imagine them laying there for eternity sleeping or not moving, but I imagine their energy or their spirit receiving rest. Not having to keep up with the hustle and bustle of human life and the society we've created and the rules..... I hope their energy or spirits are free when they pass. For people who believe in Heaven, I imagine them in their own Heaven, maybe fishing, or relaxing in a hammock watching heavenly waves crash against the celestial shores, enjoying a margarita or something... Somewhere there is no fear, no danger, just euphoria. Does that provide some insight at least for how I view the phrase? I have no idea why or where it started however.

If there is nothing after death than my words don't matter anyways, and if there is, then I just hope it's beautiful.

-Alee

Awesome reply! But it does sound like my retirement plans

originally posted by: jokei
a reply to: bluesjr

Typing it into a search engine would be helpful.

en.wikipedia.org...

www.quora.com...

But then we wouldn't get the thoughts of the ATS critical minds.

Those are interesting entries. Neither has a definitive answer so it seems to be a term that can be interpreted in a variety of ways.

a reply to: bluesjr
For people who believe in ghosts, "resting" is a state of not walking around the earth as a "troubled spirit" for whatever reason. Remember, this phrase goes back to the Middle Ages. R.I.P. actually stands for "Requiescat in pacem".
"Resting" is also understood as a contrast with the troubles of earthly life. There is the idea that the deceased is now "at rest".

originally posted by: bluesjr
Ok, this has been nagging me for a while. Not really a big deal, just something I don't understand.

RIP - Rest in Peace

Where did this start and who really believes it when they say it? It indicates that upon death you simply lie there and rest. But I don't know of any belief system which supports that concept.

- If you are religious in any way, you believe that we move on after death. Maybe a good place, maybe a bad place but in neither would you be resting. Yet most religious people use these words (?).

- If you are an atheist, you have no belief system so certainly don't believe one would be resting. Non-existing perhaps or just don't know. But not definitively resting in your grave.

So the term just seems to be out-of-place. I'm a live and let live kind of person so not trying to stop anyone from saying it if it helps comfort them. But I just want to understand. It seems to come from the immediate conditions after death where people are put in coffins and portray an image of resting, but if there isn't a belief that people continue to rest then why is it such a commonplace saying?

Shouldn't it be Rest in Peace, for a while, then be awesome. Or something along those lines.

Or maybe it should be used for people when they retire instead of death? I certainly plan on sleeping in a lot and just chilling once I'm retired.

Ummm...silly me...here I thought this was a thread on gas passing...

My bad...

Clickbaiter...



YouSir

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: bluesjr
For people who believe in ghosts, "resting" is a state of not walking around the earth as a "troubled spirit" for whatever reason. Remember, this phrase goes back to the Middle Ages. R.I.P. actually stands for "Requiescat in pacem".
"Resting" is also understood as a contrast with the troubles of earthly life. There is the idea that the deceased is now "at rest".

Thanks. I'm starting to understand the whole rest until Judgement Day and don't be a ghost thing.

Here's an interesting new thought from Jokei's Wikipedia link:

"In 2017, members of the Orange Order in Northern Ireland called on Protestants to stop using the phrase "RIP" or "Rest in Peace".[15] Wallace Thompson, the secretary of the Evangelical Protestant Society, said on a BBC Radio Ulster programme that he would encourage Protestants to refrain from using the term "RIP".[16] Thompson said that he regards "RIP" as a prayer for the dead, which he believes contradicts biblical doctrine.[17][18] In the same radio programme, Presbyterian Ken Newell disagreed that people are praying for the dead when they use the phrase."

a reply to: bluesjr
He does have a point. Praying for the dead is a Catholic thing, and Protestants tend to look down on it. In the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of England it is quite common to make prayers for "the souls of the faithful departed" (I used to hear them in my youth). Many people, referring to a deceased family member or acquaintance, will automatically add the words "God rest his soul".
But it may be argued that "R.I.P." and "God rest her soul" are merely conventional phrases which don't imply any conscious theological thought.

I believe it means that the body rests after death but the soul travels free, without the burdon of an earthly body.

There are branches of Christianity that believe there is nothing after death until after the Messiah returns and resurrects the faithful. I suspect that is where the term "rest in peace" emerged. I don't know that is its origin for a fact, but it seems plausible.

It's contentious. Some believe when we die, it's as if we go to sleep and the final resurrection and judgment as just like we are waking up from that. So, yeah, we're sleeping the long sleep, and I think that's an expression that floats around out there as a euphemism for death. Many poems will also talk about "going to sleep" and that's also understood as a metaphor for death and dying.

So RIP is just an extension of that sort of language.

So even those who do think you die and get directly judged then and go to heaven rather than it all happening at once to everyone tend to use those expressions.

originally posted by: whyamIhere
After somebody dies...

Words fall woefully short.

That is an astute truth whyamihere. Astute, to the point, and very very short.