I feel so sorry for all these atheists I can imagine the ceremony and what the atheists might say to the congregation;
"Dear beloved molecules that existed for a short time for no reason at all, we are gathered here to state that we love you, or did love you, but to be honest,....well, no we didn't actually, because love is a fuzzy feeling that molecules tend to give. And even though there was no point in your lives all that's left of you is pulverized matter, verily I say unto you that Dawkins, our King and commander, offers you his sympathies! We know it was wrong what happened to you....or do we? After all, morality only exists in our heads...and we know there is no reason we exist except to replicate genes...so I guess the conclusion to this ceremony is that we don't actually care that you're dead if we are true to the implications of atheism, because you know, ultimately the perpetrators thought this was the best reason for their lives, to kill you and in some way pass on their genes. So, well, even though we acknowledge you existed, and we acknowledge none of this matters, dear families, find peace in the fact that well, our association of atheists believe that ultimately there is no hope for your dearly departed, and have some cake on the way out, it might increase your gene-flow!"
Well, obviously I don't mean any genuine disrespect, it is actually a sarcastic example of the true implications of atheism and should be seen that way. It's actually the absurdity of the philosophy I am attacking. This atheist philosophy, if atheists were true to those implications would likely have to state these things if they are to be truly honest about what they believe. They do indeed believe that ultimately there isn't any right or wrong, they have to, so in a sense they don't think what happened in 9/11 was, "ultimately wrong", but I doubt they would tell you that. Yet in reality I think they do really believe what happened was ultimately wrong.
I think this is the problem, people can see that in reality, atheists too can be genuinely good people, that don't really believe the implications of their own philosophy otherwise they would be true to it. They want to show they can care despite not being religious and the reason they do is because they're not just molecules, like their philosophy tells them.
All I would suggest is to complete the circle. Love is the real deal, does exist and God is love, not the god of hate the muslim murderers chose. The cross represents the penalty Jesus Christ paid for every human being and the lengths God has gone to to prove love is the real deal. Ultimately this world is sinful, and the motives of the murderers were self-centred sinful motives, which is why they done what they done because they only ever knew the sinful nature and didn't have that love in them. There is hope and the cross represents true hope for eternal life in a sinless state, but if atheism is true, then there is no justice for what happened, but you can rest assured, God is the judge, and He will give the exact penalty according to His omniscient wisdom, your relatives will get justice.
Have rats turned up to the ceremony? Have the plants? Yet even atheists feel a need to portray a contrary action and acknowledge that life does indeed mean more than molecules despite their insane philosophy-of-nothingness because they too have a conscience and are made in the image of God. They deny the cross but would likely want to see justice be done, too, I imagine, according to an all-wise judgement.
The truth is there's a lot we don't understand in this world, but to go so far as to throw a God of love out completely, well - that's just folly if He really is there, and we can tell you He is, and that when you have the love of God it is the greatest feeling in the world, and the greatest meaning available and has no offense in it at all. Those who are genuinely born-again as Christ described can experience this love for themselves, and they will also know that it is the key to everything truly and morally good and right.
(Sure, use the "hell" example to come back at me, I can take it, I know it's coming, but at least we don't believe that ultimately there is no reason we exist or are here, which is still insane even if hell doesn't exist. I think I could accept it if hell only existed for genuinely through-and-through evil folk like the extremists and murderers and so forth, but to believe there is no point at all to existing, is just plain dumb, it just is.)
™ Version 4.2
