Whost else thinks cremation should be banned?

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Spare plots in cemetaries are not in infinite supply. I'd rather be cremated than be buried on top of another corpse. Plus cremation is cheaper. Not everyone in the world can afford a plot and a marble headstone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakhma

I'm an organ donor (says so on my ID!), but I'd probably prefer to be cremated after that is said and done. I'd rather turn to ash than get stuck sitting in a grave for eternity. At least ashes can be scattered and returned to the earth. Sitting in a box never did anybody any good.

Nope... Cremation is not satanic. There is no such thing as satanic because there is no such thing as satan, but I'm not here to debate religion. I personally don't give a damn WHAT they do with my body after I'm dead. WTF do I care? I'll be dead... They can shove a stick of dynamite up my anus and blow my ass up for all I care. Shoot me out of a canon, use me as a string puppet, I don't care. I'd rather be cremated than buried anyway. What's the point of burial? Why are we wasting all that land just to put dead bodies in the ground? Plus, I don't care if people remember me when I'm gone or not. The only people who will really remember me are the ones whose lives I've touched, and that's fine with me.

I don't think it would be right to ban cremation or burial; what happens to a person's body upon their death should be a decision between them and their family (and as with most things, there is a "within reason" qualifier there).

I heard a while ago that one reason the practice of burial was adopted by early Christians was to affirm their belief in a bodily resurrection. A lot of the prevailing philosophy at the time held that the body is evil, so being a disembodied spirit would be the best state to be in. Christians believed that God made the physical body, therefore it is good, and at the last day, he will raise both the body and the soul and perfect them both. (I am hopefully not oversimplifying or interpreting too much.)

As a Christian myself, I hope for the same thing (though don't ask me how it's supposed to happen; it can only be a miracle), and I appreciate the statement the early Christians were making, so if I were to choose, I would choose to be buried rather than cremated. But I don't believe that I need to be buried in order to be resurrected-- whether I am buried or cremated or eaten by a tiger or blown out into space, I will be just as dead. It would be pretty illogical to say "God can raise a person from the dead, but only if their remains are in one place. Otherwise, it's just too hard." As if raising a person from the dead is the easy part? (The other possibility I might consider would be donating my body to science, if there's some chance that studying it could be used to develop medicine to help others.)

Oh, sorry. That's probably a very weird digression. But it's at least an example of how beliefs about what should be done with a person's remains after death are very personal. It would be wrong for me to try to force everyone to do the same thing as me if they are hurting no one by their actions. There are times when people are required to cremate a body because the person had a dangerous disease that must be destroyed so there is no chance of contagion; that's a case of protecting others. But in most cases? It should be a personal decision.

Leave your body to Gunther von Hagens. That'll please the relatives.

No not really, its just one option that is availible.

I think the thought of a perfectly preserved corpse degrading over the millennia is much more creepy than the relatively small amount of time that it looks scary during cremation.

As for it being Satanic... well, I'd have to believe in Satan first in order to form such an opinion, otherwise that view is unfounded.

As for myself, I want my physical matter to go back to the earth after I die. That I will do by having my ashes scattered, because opting to be a rotting skeleton for centuries is out of the question!

I want my body to be buried beneath the roots of a tree, so that my carbon compounds can quickly be used to fuel new life.

I have a fundamental problem with laws banning or forcing anything on anyone when it's a personal matter such as cremation, abortion, drug use, etc.... Those things are not what I believe are the government's business in any way.

As far as the direct question; I don't care one way or the other about cremation, and once I'm dead, I don't want to be a burden on anyone by requiring a costly casket, or grave site. Therefore, I directed that my remains be donated to a medical school for study, after any and all usable organs have been donated.

I believe that my spirit will go in good standing to wherever I deserve to go, and the earthly body is waste material, and thus I have no problem with what happens to it when I don't need it anymore.

Charles

I personally don't like the thoughts of cremation, and I would rather be buried---but I don't think cremation is evil or should be banned. People of different cultures and religions have been doing it for thousands of years--and they believe it is a must. I don't think these people are Satanic or evil, nor do I think their cultural practice should be banned simply because that was not common in the West until more recent decades. Now that it is more common here, people should have the right to do what they want with their own remains. Cremation is not my choice, but why should I decide how someone else "gets rid of" their own body once they are gone? It is not hurting anyone--not even themselves--so I'll stay out of their business.

I wish to be burried when I die. Cremation reminds me of the people who were burned in the ovens during the Holocaust.

I for one would much rather be cremated than buried. Why? I've seen old decrepit wooden coffins & their contents (yes bodies) for sale at swap meets. Of course, this was many years ago. But I've not forgotten the vision of the coffin propped up with the body still inside. I think it was a man dressed in tattered clothes (everything deteriorates over time), & most of the flesh was gone. Talk about gross! Gave me the creeps...it was real too, not some Hollywood prop. Not only was it horrible to witness, but a terrible thing to do to dig up some man's remains & then sell them. The indignity! Who would even want to buy such a thing? At least if I'm cremated no one can exhume what's left for profit or for some archaelogical dig looking for long gone human beings & what they were like when alive. I wish to be left alone & forgotten.

I don't care what happens to my body after I'm dead. It will be just a lump of dead meat. They can feed it to the dogs for all I care. When my brain dies and with it my consciousness, memories, thoughts and emotions the real me is gone for ever, so what happens to the corpse is irrelevant.

I've never understood why you would want to completely destroy someones body when they're dead. I'd like to be buried very simply in a cardboard box and I like the idea that someone might dig up my skull in 1000 years time.

I far prefer cremation to burial.

I had the body of my partner cremated when he died.

I will be cremated when I die.