I'm sorry to say, I don't judge your options, but it's funny how suddenly everyone is an atheist, but if their mother gets sick, they pray to God to save her..
Anyway, I recently lost my grandmother and I was flooded with questions as to what death is. I kept thinking that we, humans, praise the soul of a living person all the time, but ultimately, when the person dies and its soul supposedly leaves the body, we still respect it, no matter if the dead person is objectively equal to a plastic bottle, both soul-less. This proves the fact that it's just an idea, so that the person holds a 'living' identity in our memory.
There is some kind of a tribe that offer the corpses to carnivorous birds. It's some sort of a philosophical ritual, that makes them believe that a person should return back to nature. This way, life is recycled among the species.
I have to admit, I used to believe in souls, but I am now having my doubts. Why a thing, such as the 'afterlife', should exist? It might be some hope of the weak human, that their life will never be spared, leading to an endless lifetime. Who wants to know that some time, everyone's activity will come to an end? We might truthfully stop living after some point. Death is our ultimate future, it is unavoidable and let's face it, real life is no Warcraft III, no one holds the secrets to eternal life..
P.S. Even you, the atheists consider the afterlife or some sort of heaven. This is when you stay back at your beliefs and embrace "windows" (just like law does) to additional beliefs. In my opinion, whatever the religion is, everyone is sharing the same fear: the fear of dying, physically and spiritually.