Why is cremation not used more often?

[Schadenfroh]

I attended a wake tonight and i always find it odd how everyone seems to just linger around the kadaver and just chat about stuff, some even laughing. I looked at the corpse of my deceased great uncle and thought of the embalming process and how quickly the corpse will decay when placed in the ground. Why do people not go thru the process of cremation more often?

I know people ritualistically perserve the body, but in the proccess of embalming, you screw with the body so much that it is nearly an artificial repplicant of the person. Most major religions in the US that i know of dont say you are going to hell if your body is not buried. Grave yards take up a good deal of land. I see them in cities where more businesses could be developed, and now the land can never be developed because of the precense of cemetaries (unless thru mass relocation).

It seems like people would see cremation as a way to avoid the thought of worms consuming their loved ones and to save space for the living. while i do respect the dead, i dont think they will care all that much what is done with their bodies. But i guess much of it has to do with the family......

 

[Kalvin00]

Cost? I seem to remember creaming animals costed a bundle, imagine it would be for humans too?


Edit: That should say "cremating" animals. Hrm..

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Kalvin00
Cost? I seem to remember creaming animals costed a bundle, imagine it would be for humans too?


Edit: That should say "cremating" animals. Hrm..

Cremating is still a fraction of what it costs for a medium priced casket and a plot in a cemetary. Plus burial fees and all the extras.

 

[RagingBITCH]

B/C most families don't want to see their previous walking and talking loved ones in a mother fvcking jar.

 

[jadinolf]

Cremation is very popular in California. I don't know about other places.

My wife was cremated when she died in 1988.

 

[n0cmonkey]

It shouldn't be mandatory, but I think burial is generally a waste. Bury people where the bodies do some good as fertilizer. You want to visit the dead person? Go to where that person lived, not where their body is. Mourning death is silly without celebrating life.

 

[BillGates]

I feel exactly like you do - I think it's all related to old-fashioned superstition, and maybe a bit of morbid curiosity/perversion that comes from viewing dead bodies. I honestly don't see the advantages of being enbalmed/buried in a box. I've already told people close to me that I wanted to be cremated - any way else is just f-cked.

 

[shiner]

What if the Egyptians were right and we need our body and lots of stuff in the afterworld?

Huh? Huh? Huh?

ALBATROSS!!!

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: shinerburke
What if the Egyptians were right and we need our body and lots of stuff in the afterworld?

Huh? Huh? Huh?

ALBATROSS!!!

i would rather be completly destroyed and not have the afterworld if it means to be sentanced to that Hippo/Crocadile/Lion thingy in egyptian mythology.

 

[jadinolf]

I would like to be buried in my car.


Along with the guy who sold it to me.

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: Kalvin00
Cost? I seem to remember creaming animals costed a bundle, imagine it would be for humans too?
Edit: That should say "cremating" animals. Hrm..

Costs FAR less.

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
B/C most families don't want to see their previous walking and talking loved ones in a mother fvcking jar.

Many, many who are cremated are then buried in family plots.


But to answer the OP as to, "Why is cremation not used more often?" -- It's because many who tried it got burned!

 

[klah]

In Japan cremation is used in over 99% of cases.

 

[gtsukada]

don't forget to bury the body face down

 

[Mucho]

Many religions are against cremation.

 

[dababus]

Because i don't want you to be lurking around my window reminding me that am headed there as well.

 

[BlamoHammer]

I would like to be cremated after I die. That being said I dont want to reside on someones mantle, I would want my ashes to be spread somewhere like off the Golden Gate bridge or someother place like that.

 

[fredtam]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
B/C most families don't want to see their previous walking and talking loved ones in a mother fvcking jar.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Originally posted by: klah
In Japan cremation is used in over 99% of cases.

Because they have no room to bury everyone.

Question: Instead of being buried or cremated, is there a little box where I can check off mummification because that would be kinda cool.

 

[fredtam]

Originally posted by: UglyCasanova

Originally posted by: klah
In Japan cremation is used in over 99% of cases.

Because they have no room to bury everyone.

Question: Instead of being buried or cremated, is there a little box where I can check off mummification because that would be kinda cool.

I think they may still do it in Louisiana.

Not sure on that one though. Just heard it a long time ago.

 

[BespinReactorShaft]

Because when there's no more room in Hell...

 

[Kibbo]

Interesting thing, my father wanted to be cremated, but when he died, my stepmother wanted him buried. Note that it costs more, so it wasn't a self-interest thing, it was just an emotional need she had.

First, the idea of cremation was a little foreign to her, since all her family was buried.

Second, she expressed alot of need to preserve him, in what I think was a (perhaps irrational) desire to prolong his existance. Since his death was sudden, I kinda understood this, although I thought it was irrational. She even wanted to line the grave with plastic coating, and get him a rubber-sealed, galvanized coffin. She felt that she "needed to protect him." I stood against this last measure, since I have a (heretofore not explicitly known by me) belief that a body should be returned to the earth.

I myself would like to be cremated, but I would disagree with a law enforcing this. Grief entails alot of irrational feelings, and this is not the time to use government interference merely to maintain real estate prices.

Edit: clarity and spelling. I'm a bit drunk.

 

[zzzz]

religion

 

[n0cmonkey]

What religions still ban cremation? I know there is a stigma associated with it because of former banning or atleast religions frowning upon cremation, but which religions still BAN it?

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Originally posted by: Mucho
Many religions are against cremation.

For example.........?

 

[DeeKnow]

don't know about you, but to me, the cremation process is a lot more 'clean' than burial.... dust to dust and ashes to ashes and all that aside, i prefer that insects and bacteria dont feed off my remains when i'm gone..