Why do we bury people?

[Thorn]

I don't think there's anything wrong with burial, the problem is; the concrete vaults, the air-tight water-resistant caskets, and the enbalming of the body. If they'd simply bury the body in a plain pine box (or even just a linen sheet) w/o using all those enbalming chemicals the process would be much more environment friendly. Burying people vertically instead of horizontally would help too (as far as cemetary space is concerned).

Of course, cremation is a good solution too... but many religions don't believe it to be a proper way of honoring their dead (the Jews, Orthodox Cathloics, and some of the more conservative protestants). My church falls into that catagory (I'm a Maranite or also known as Antiochian Orthodox), we traditionally bury our dead unembalmed in a linen shroud. The main problem we have is most states have laws against this so we are forced to compromise and bury our people in a pine box (still unembalmed and w/o a vault). Even with the compromise we catch flack from the government (even when the dead are buried in our own private cemetary), but usually they'll back down when we send in our lawyer.

 

[Electric Amish]

My Will:

1) Get a cardboard box
2) Lay my carcass in it
3) Soak with gasoline/kerosene/whatever's handy and flammable
4) Flick your Bic!
5) Poof! I'm outta here.

Cemeteries are a waste of good golf course land.

amish

 

[Azraele]

I think burial has a two-fold purpose. The ceremony itself is a way of saying that final goodbye and bringing closure. Burying people serves the other purpose of a clean environment. It's more sanitary to bury the dead rather than leave them out. I know the neanderthal (sp?) were the first humans to begin burying their dead, but I don't think anyone knows exactly why.

Personally I want to be creamated.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Personally I'd like to have a Tibetan Sky Burial when I die, but considering that here in the US that would not go over well I'll probably request cremation. I have a friend who wants to be stuffed by a taxidermist (sp?) and placed in a Lay-Z-Boy in front of the television because he likes thinking about the kind of reaction it would get. More on topic, I think burial was mainly a method of getting rid of the stench originally.

Zenmervolt

 

[RaDragon]

<< Of course, cremation is a good solution too... but many religions don't believe it to be a proper way of honoring their dead (the Jews, Orthodox Cathloics, and some of the more conservative protestants >>



Thorn, cremation is &quot;OK&quot; in the Catholic church...

&quot;Catechism of the Catholic Church - American Translation
2301
Autopsies can be morally permitted for legal inquests or scientific research. The free gift of organs after death is legitimate and can be meritorious.

The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body.&quot;
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2301.htm

..Just wanted to update ya on that

 

[LadyJessica]

When I'm dead, I want my body preserved like Lennin's and put in a display case.

 

[freebee]

When I died two years ago, I was cremated

 

[freebee]

Then they brought me back

 

[freebee]

I am the undead!!!!!!!!

 

[freebee]

See me and be afraid!!!!

 

[RaDragon]

undead nef

 

[Electric Amish]

LadyJessica- I don't think that's such a good idea for women. You know how horny some men can get!

amish

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

i wouldn't mind being buried or cremated...BUT if i do get buried, I want to buried in a HOLE not a grave. I mean get out the auger and drill a 3'wide hole 20 feet deep and drop me in (shrink wrapped and right side up please). Then I want a piece of pvc pipe that connects to my mouth and sticks up about 5 feet so that my loving widowed wife and children can honor my memory by pouring some beer down to me everynow and then.

 

[vi edit]

Toast me then toss me.

I think that burials offer that last link between the dead and the living. Living relatives can go to your gravesite and know that you are still there (albeit a little decomposed) just six feet under that tombstone. It's a comfort thing I guess. Death is considered such a depressing thing that people can't let go and still need that connection I guess.

Personally, I say screw that. I don't want any tears to be shed on my tombstone every year. All it does is make you remember the persons death. Cremate me and then toss my ashes someplace that I enjoyed, that way when you visit that place you think about the fun times I had instead of dumping my dead corpse in some graveyard with a bunch of other dead corpses. Bah!

 

[Thorn]

<< Thorn, cremation is &quot;OK&quot; in the Catholic church... >>


It may be &quot;Ok&quot; in the Roman Catholic church, but not in the vast majority of Orthodox Catholic churches. There are VERY large doctrinal differences between the two (kinda like the differences between Southern Baptists and Presbyterians). In fact, we haven't been on the same page doctrinally speaking since the 5th century AD... not since they decided they needed a pope.

 

[RaDragon]

<< It may be &quot;Ok&quot; in the Roman Catholic church, but not in the vast majority of Orthodox Catholic churches >>



i apologize, i did mean to say 'Roman Catholic' -- you're right, most orthodox catholic congregations do not tolerae cremation.

 

[Kosugi]

What a good question! I think alot of people would be surprised by the answer.


And of course, it is all about religion. Many religions, not just Christians, believed in some form of life after death and &quot;Resurrection&quot;. A day of reckoning when the dead would rise from their grave. Burial, embalming, mummification, was a way to preserve the body for that day. Cremation was a way of punishing people even after they died, for when the day of atonenment/reckoning came, and you didn't have a body (it was ashes), you could not proceed to the next life.

It was not until very recently that the Catholic religion actually accepted cremation as a valid form of disposing of the body. The idea of resurection was seen more metaphoically, then literally.

And this by far predates Christianity, even the Egyptians and those that came before them had the idea of burial to preserve the body for the next life or resurrection.

Basically, to sum it up, the modern day practice of burial is a vestige of Religious rituals dating back about 5000 years. It is NOT practical anymore. My suggestion is to donate your organs, and then &quot;ashes to ashes, dust to dust&quot; kick up the hibachi!

 

[Modeps]

its funny, the slogan of this store right next to my work (they sell caskets and stuff for people and animals, mostly animals):

&quot;People bury people because they have to. People bury animals because they want to.&quot;


that makes me laugh
Dignified Endings

 

[shaady1]

The burial is as much tradition as it is a religious act.

I don't want my family to have to &quot;waste&quot; a large amount of money on a funeral for me. And what's up with the expensive caskets? They can have me buried quietly in a cheap coffin. I won't mind.

 

[Raspewtin]

i would like to donate my organs and burn the rest, and then dispose of the ashes somehow. I don't want to be a cadaver b/c I went to med school and there was virtually no respect for cadavers at the school I went to (you'd be surprised).

 

[Bignate603]

i think people buried them in the first place because what else would you with a large dead person? you can't leave it just hanging around, it would stink. If they just went and dropped him some place something would come along and eat the body, and make a huge mess. So, somebody must have been like &quot;Hey lets stick him in the ground!&quot;

 

[warcleric]

Why do we wait until someone dies to bury them? I know a few that should be buried today.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

I would prefer cremation. At my funeral put me in a big BBQ pit. Once the ceremony is over dump in some charcol dowse with lighter fluid and light me up. If i'm gonna be cremated put the fire to use.

 

[Yuckysgf]

Lebowski, I'm sure people would want to eat human-smoked meat. :disgust:

 

[nightowl]

The main reason is to pay our respects to the dead. It is only right to honor our fallen friends and family. It also offers a form of closure to the family and friends.

On a side note, It also provides me and my dad with a job. My dad works for a global muti-national company that makes caskests, urns and other burial devices. He takes care of any quality issues funeral home directors have with the caskets. As for myself, I am a intern for the parent company and I help support the network for the corporation.