Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Burial is preferred. Christians bodies are going to come out of the ground and go to heaven.
“From these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.”
Our mortal remains are not necessary. If they were, then people who were accidentally burned in fire, devoured by animals, etc, would not be resurrected at the last day.
My understanding has always been that some Christians prefer burial because it seems more respectful to the body. But I think that’s a matter of opinion and circumstances. I loathe the idea of being embalmed, put in a solid wood or metal coffin, and then buried in a concrete vault. I would like my body to return to the earth as far as possible, and since a pine box in the ground is not easy to manage these days, I’m fine with cremation.
As far as Buddhists go, in Japan everyone is cremated and I was told when there that space is at a premium and they just can’t spare the amount of land needed for Western-style cemeteries. But I think it’s also the case that cremation has been traditional for a very long time, including in China, which historically did not have space problems. In WWII, the parents of every Japanese serviceman who died were sent a little box with the remains. Apparently these were sometimes even falsified, because it was very important to the family to have those ashes.
Cremation certainly stops / ends the process of bodies rotting and stagnating. I like the idea of that, plus being able to have some bodily remains for either burial or scattering. And for burying the cremated remains, it can be done with less room and cost, and even be done by oneself. Why not be more involved with this process? There are many more options with cremation.
Of course, some people can't do or think of any other way than what religions and corporate thought have dictated. "We've always done it this way, so there's no other option or possibility. Dumbdy dum dum." You're letting other people think for you, and limit your options.
That's the thing, the funeral business is a big one - lots of $$$ to be made.
We were already traumatized by the death, so going to the funeral home, going through the minutia of getting this casket, this burial cloth... etc etc was a blur.
After all was said and done the total cost was over $25,000 - that includes the burial plot, stone, the actual funeral etc.
This was a basic funeral. The casket was simple. There was a viewing day, then the next day was the burial.
I don't want to feed into this business. And my pragmatic side doesn't want to waste $$$.
For me, pay for the cremation, put be in a ziplock. Done.
The rest is just friends and family bringing my ashes to somewhere serene and full of birds and trees and a nice lake.
After going through the process I am a bit bitter about the funeral business TBH.
When my grandfather died, the funeral home director tried coaxing my dad into buying the most obscenely expensive coffin in stock. “Your father drove a Rolls-Royce in life. Don’t you think he deserves to be sent off in the Rolls-Royce of caskets in death?” My dad replied, “If I wasted my money on this overblown coffin, my father will come back from the dead and kill me!”
Incidentally, the funeral home director, who passed away several years ago, ended up being buried in the gaudy monstrosity because he couldn’t sucker anyone else into buying it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thoreau424
Cremation certainly stops / ends the process of bodies rotting and stagnating. I like the idea of that, plus being able to have some bodily remains for either burial or scattering. There are so more options with cremation.
Of course, some people can't do or think of any other way than what religions and corporate thought have dictated. "We've always done it this way, so there's no other option or possibility. Dumbdy dum."
Ironically judgmental words coming from a religionist! You’d think Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens had written this post.
I don’t have the time or inclination to judge people’s bodily disposition choices, so long as it doesn’t break any laws or otherwise impact the health and well-being of the living.
Besides, everyone knows the truly enlightened have their corpses tossed to bears or wolves or other XYZ carnivore of choice. WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!
That's the thing, the funeral business is a big one - lots of $$$ to be made.
We were already traumatized by the death, so going to the funeral home, going through the minutia of getting this casket, this burial cloth... etc etc was a blur.After all was said and done the total cost was over $25,000 - that includes the burial plot, stone, the actual funeral etc.This was a basic funeral. The casket was simple. There was a viewing day, then the next day was the burial.I don't want to feed into this business. And my pragmatic side doesn't want to waste $$$.For me, pay for the cremation, put be in a ziplock. Done.The rest is just friends and family bringing my ashes to somewhere serene and full of birds and trees and a nice lake.After going through the process I am a bit bitter about the funeral business TBH.
"According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the average funeral costs $9,995, including a burial service, viewing, and vault. The average cost of cremation is $6,280, which includes a funeral service and viewing. Remember, however, that funeral costs vary greatly by state and type."
Recently a loved one passed away, it was unexpected and sudden.
The traditional burial was expensive and made me think of my own mortality and what should be done when it's my time.
Right now I think that cremation is the most practical choice for me.
Less expensive.
No need for a patch of real estate for my body.
But what does the various religions think of cremation?
Is there anything in the Bible that tells us what should be done? Does it frown upon cremation?
Burning my body use to scare me. I know dead is not able to feel the fire but it just always reminded me of the hell fire where people go for being evil and not believing.
But now with all this FB and people just having to show every detail of their lives on the net I don't want that for me. Kids today put pics of dead relatives on the net. I know it's nothing like what people did years ago with their dead being posed to look alive but still that is not for me. I also never understood why we put out dead love ones on display like that. It never did make sense to me. So I finally opted to be cremated but I want my pet cats cremains with me.
The Buddhist practice of cremation probably was based upon practical matters of real estate.
Well that is a lot of what has driven the transition to cremation in the US -- the cemeteries get full and there is not that much land available for additional cemeteries, at least that isn't more valuable for other purposes or doesn't run into NIMBY issues. There are other forces of course, but the expense of providing a cemetery plot in perpetuity is one of them.
Christian burial started with people being buried on Church Ground which was considered sacred.They didn't think ahead that maybe 8 billion people would be on the earth. So it rare to see someone buried on church property nowadays.We now have grave yards to deal with all the people which is broken up into different faiths with each one blessing the ground their faithful will be buried in.Today to deal with the mass amount of people's bodies that have died other alternative have been found.Some grave yard today won't promise eternal rest your grave will be removed your bones put in a communal grave and your plot resold to someone else after a period of time in the contract.Its just beginning only a few are doing that now.Its a money business and they want to reclaim plots.They have tried to make spreading ashes outside of the grave yard illegal through lobbying so that its not free tring to figure out how to make it profitable .Its not illegal yet but their lobbyist are working on it. I don't see any other choice there are so many humans dying every day I think its almost 7000 a hour or 168000 a day.
I don't know how many times I've heard that song and somehow not made the 'reincarnation' connection.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
