The Eternal Cycle of Life: Nature, Death and Burial

[fufalian]

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The origin of life and humans is unknown.That is to say that humans do not know how they came into being and why humans come to this world.
We only know that life and humanity is the product of natural process.Humans should therefore be in a humble attitude towards nature and the product of natural process: the human body.

Death and giving birth both are parts of natural process.Death is human body lose its functions and stops working.In nature,animals after death are decomposed by microbes and become the nutrients of microbes and plants,thus participate in the circulation of the organic matter in biosphere. This course has already lasted hundreds of millions of years since life appeared on earth,and our bodies are the products of this circulation.
After death,as long as not to burn the body as garbage by cremation,the body would still be in the original natural process.The remains would be eaten by microbes and plants,thus turned into other life forms and still in the biosystem and participate in the eternal circulation and evolvement of life in nature.
Nature never produces garbage.Its every process is reasonable,otherwise it is unlikely to create life and humans.
Death is a normal natural process,but cremation is the artificial destruction of the human body.and is the artificial destruction of things and processes that we don't really know.
Burial is to return the human body to nature.let it be handled by nature,even coffins are redundant.The dead thus blend naturally and be in one with nature and live forever with nature.By that we pay reverence to nature and things that we don't really know and also the greatest respect for the dead.

 

[radou]

1) People love rituals.

2) Some people don't like the idea of rotting.

 

[Born2bwire]

I want to be cremated because if I end up dying as a zombie, the ashes rising up in the smoke from my zombified body will mix with the rain to spread the zombie virus amongst the population at large. If I have to go down to zombies then I'm willing to take everyone else with me.

Otherwise it also gives me an excuse to dictate that my family spread my ashes around very inaccessible areas of the world at their cost. I won't be able to rest until the siblings that managed to outlive me have had to travel to the four corners of the Earth to spread my carbon.

 

[radou]

I want to be cremated because if I end up dying as a zombie, the ashes rising up in the smoke from my zombified body will mix with the rain to spread the zombie virus amongst the population at large. If I have to go down to zombies then I'm willing to take everyone else with me.

A good point.

 

[Jack21222]

Are you trying to say that burying bodies instead of cremating them will have a non-negligible effect on the ecosystem? Sounds like a good research topic for you, get to it. Come back when you have some numbers.

 

[leroyjenkens]

I want to be mummified and a giant pyramid, at least twice as large as Giza built over my body. No one does that anymore. I'm going to bring that trend back.

 

[rewebster]

Wouldn't it be better, along the OP's logic, just to feed human corpses to other animals?

it would speed up the process

 

[jackmell]

I am a Biologist and wish to go naturally either at a body-farm or in nature. No chemicals, no mummy, no casket, flowers, wake, just biology.

 

[Oerg]

Wouldn't it be better, along the OP's logic, just to feed human corpses to other animals?

it would speed up the process

In Tibet, sky rituals are performed for the dead where the body is prepared for consumption by vultures.

 

[matthyaouw]

A coffin won't fit on a mantle piece nearly so easily as an urn, and scattering bodies in the ganges would be an environmental disaster.

Seriously though, burial takes time and takes space. Sometimes one has neither.

 

[BobG]

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Nature never produces garbage.Its every process is reasonable,otherwise it is unlikely to create life and humans.
Death is a normal natural process,but cremation is the artificial destruction of the human body.and is the artificial destruction of things and processes that we don't really know.
Burial is to return the human body to nature.let it be handled by nature,even coffins are redundant.The dead thus blend naturally and be in one with nature and live forever with nature.By that we pay reverence to nature and things that we don't really know and also the greatest respect for the dead.

That idea works if you're a single family living in a cabin in the wilderness. In New York City, 150 people per day die and decomposition in open air can take weeks to years. Decomposition in the ground takes even longer. Dead bodies draw flies and other annoying insects, plus other scavengers.

It's also hard to achieve emotional closure if you see your dead loved one lying on your front lawn every morning. Personally, I'd have to at least drag my loved one's dead body into a neighbor's yard.

Unless it was close to halloween. I could probably make an exception in that instance, since I'm pretty sure I could rig up a candle in the skull or something.

 

[binbots]

this topic has bugged me for years. I believe both choices are terrible. I heard there is a place in scotland that freezes the body and then makes it into a fertile powder. This can be placed in gardens and such. I think this is a great idea. I would have no problem eatign fruit from my dead relatives.lol. I also believe that this powder can be used for deep root fertilizing. That way you can plant a tree and all members of the family can be used to fertilze it. You can then have the smith oak tree for example is a park full of family trees. I have wanted to do this for years but i am unaware of the rules and i don't like to touch dead people.

 

[physics girl phd]

I am a Biologist and wish to go naturally either at a body-farm or in nature. No chemicals, no mummy, no casket, flowers, wake, just biology.

My spouse and I are associated with UT Knoxville (home of the perhaps most famous body-farm), and we've heard it's quite difficult to actually get accepted. We still plan to fully donate ourselves away (organ donation or science) if we can. I definitely hope to go in some way that allows organ donation.

Natural burials are a great thought... there was an excellent documentary on this that I viewed on pbs several years back. Local and state laws vary.

 

[Borg]

I want to be mummified and a giant pyramid, at least twice as large as Giza built over my body. No one does that anymore. I'm going to bring that trend back.

I wouldn't want a pyramid that big but I'll insist on mine being built on Mars. :tongue:

 

[Math Is Hard]

I have to be cremated - it's the first step toward becoming a diamond.
http://www.lifegem.com

 

[Astronuc]

Or one could opt for Plasmafication - http://www.plasmaarctech.com/

or vultures

or bottom feeders in the ocean.


Simply recycle oneself.

 

[russ_watters]

Otherwise it also gives me an excuse to dictate that my family spread my ashes around very inaccessible areas of the world at their cost. I won't be able to rest until the siblings that managed to outlive me have had to travel to the four corners of the Earth to spread my carbon.

I recently read that a guy was fined, for spreading his dad's ashes in a national park. So you'll definitely want to have some of your relatives spread some there. And if you have a relative that irritates, you, you can have them spread some of your ashes in center field during a Phillies game: http://www.examiner.com/x-38158-Cul...lies-fan-Tasered-for-running-onto-field-VIDEO

 

[Evo]

In Tibet, sky rituals are performed for the dead where the body is prepared for consumption by vultures.

Yep, that's how I want to go. Ihe vultures eat you, sparing a bunny. and they poop you all over the mountains as fertilzer.

 

[rootX]

I am donating all my organs, hopefully they would send my remaining body to some biology students ..

 

[Evo]

I am donating all my organs, hopefully they would send my remaining body to some biology students ..

Both of my parents have willed their bodies to Baylor University for study. You need to arrange it.

 

[BobG]

Best reason for cremation? It's cheaper to send your ashes into space than your entire body.

http://www.celestis.com/default.asp

 

[IcedEcliptic]

Anything is better than being eaten, as in some Papua New Guinea tribes of the past, or being eaten by enemies in the DRC.

 

[Werg22]

I am donating all my organs, hopefully they would send my remaining body to some biology students ..

Screw donating organs. When this world is done with me, I'll be done with it! :tongue:

 

[IcedEcliptic]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/05/maryland.funeral.home/index.html

That makes a strong case, for the sake of the bereaved at least. Werg22, you are joking, yes? If so it's funny, but if I misunderstand then when you are done with the world, what better reason to leave yourself to those still in it?

 

[fufalian]

thanks all of you for the replies.

The dead is no longer a living human being.By natural burial he returned to the same natural process as before he had been born.It is this natural process that brought him to life,and back to this process after his death .As the dead is in the same natural process as before he was born,no one can absolutely exclude the possibility that this process would in the future produce kind of new life which may have some connection with the dead, since the same process once really created human life from lifeless chaos.

The manmade cremation destroyed the body by high temperature,thus destroyed the original natural process. Cremation emit carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air,thus does no good for both the dead and the alive.

The one chooses natural burial believes that death is not the final end of life,his life is with nature.The natural process that created human life is a creative and living force.

The one chooses cremation believes that death is the final end of life,it is not necessary to return the body to earth,so destroy it by burn it to gases and ashes.By thus doing the dead was really destroyed and is really the final end of life for all.

 

[hypatia]

Natural rotting is a very grim sight, not to mention stinky. And unless you have smelled it... well you just wouldn't understand.
The body farms have to be very picky, to keep contagions away from the students.

 

[IcedEcliptic]

Natural rotting is a very grim sight, not to mention stinky. And unless you have smelled it... well you just wouldn't understand.
The body farms have to be very picky, to keep contagions away from the students.

Nothing smells worse than a purifying human body in my experience. I had heard from a friend working in pathology that rotting pork or beef was similar, but no. The bowels and gasses are terrible, and I wonder if the modern age of embalming and cremation has led to people not understanding how horrible corpses left in the open in places such as Haiti are. Disease at least comes after some time, but the reek is, what, 8 hours if that? A prank was played on me, with methanethiol, and it was a sweet breeze compared to a body that had gone off in the sun for just two days.

I don't know that this is an argument for cremation, just a rapid burial, embalming, or other means of disposal. fufalian has a point about environmental impact, but what carbon is in not like fossile fuel that would be under rock for eons. Hotel's laundry does more to the world I suspect, than cremation: we are mostly water anyway.

 

[fufalian]

Natural rotting is a very grim sight, not to mention stinky. And unless you have smelled it... well you just wouldn't understand.
The body farms have to be very picky, to keep contagions away from the students.

how about this sight?
http://img17.tianya.cn/Photo/2010/4/25/20605266_20540013.jpg

 

[fufalian]

The one chooses natural burial believes that death is not the final end of life,his life is with nature,the natural process that created human life is a creative living force.

The one chooses cremation believes that death is the final end of life,it is not necessary to return the body to earth,so destroy it by burn it to gases and ashes.By thus doing the dead was really destroyed and is really the final end of life once for all.

 

[TMFKAN64]

I've been a big supporter of cremation and www.lifegem.com for years. This has two major advantages in my eyes:
1) A Diamond is Forever, so no more talk of a "final end", and
2) No matter how useless a person may have been during their life, you can make them into a really nice ring afterwards.

 

[Cyrus]

When I'm dead, I want to be cremated into a grill of life diamonds, namsaying?

[PLAIN]http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/323/grillznigro8ta.jpg

 

[Proton Soup]

when i die, one lucky lottery winner will get a single coin and pair of necropants in my size

 

[fufalian]

I've been a big supporter of cremation and www.lifegem.com for years. This has two major advantages in my eyes:
1) A Diamond is Forever, so no more talk of a "final end", and
2) No matter how useless a person may have been during their life, you can make them into a really nice ring afterwards.

I'd rather be a tree than a diamond.There are huge amount of diamonds in the univers,but no life has been found outside of earth,so a tree or even a bacterium is much more precious than diamonds.

One chooses to be burried in ground and a tree be plant on the above will be the food of the tree and eventually he become that tree.

 

[fufalian]

Perhaps most compelling argument against cremation (or disappearance at all, for that matter) even if the energy use was negligible and harmful emissions nonexistent—may be that, in disappearing, we actually lose our chance to continue to participate in planetary life in a personally meaningful way.

 

[Cyrus]

Perhaps most compelling argument against cremation (or disappearance at all, for that matter) even if the energy use was negligible and harmful emissions nonexistent—may be that, in disappearing, we actually lose our chance to continue to participate in planetary life in a personally meaningful way.

Not really. Let's say you're dead and a skeleton. That in and of itself isn't going to bring you back to life and keep all your past memories in tact. That information would be in your brain. So really, all you need is a jar with your brain in it. It has the DNA to reconstruct the rest of your body, which is all you really need.