Cremation (vanity question)

freerepublic.com ^ | 12/26/2011 | Me.

[Dallas59]

Question on Cremation. Does the Bible say anything about it? Is it forbidden?

[muawiyah]

Let's say you'd like to be laid to rest in the enormous veterans cemetery in San Diego overlooking the Pacific ~ you can be cremated and go into a columbarium (that big wall around the place) or you can go somewhere else.

Then, there's ordinary whole body burial ~ where you decompose somewhat slowly ~ maybe over centuries, but in the end, combustion does take place and you end up as dust.

My wife and I are both veterans. We choose to NOT be buried near those who didn't serve ~

[mylife]

Jesus Christ, The Apple Tree

[mylife]

Oh Noes!

[Dallas59]

For me, the idea of my body rotting in a box 6 feet under is repulsive. I would rather be “ashified” and those ashes spread all over the Appalachian mountains in Tennessee and Kentucky. The dead know nothing I realize, but to my earthly flesh brain....It comforts me to know where my body will be until the Earth is renewed.

[bigheadfred]

We choose to NOT be buried near those who didn't serve

What about those who want to get served???

[Reddy]

No commandment against it in Scripture. I personally wouldn’t do it. Jesus was buried (in a tomb), so for us that’s the example that was set that should be followed.

I had a nightmare after my mil was cremated. I dreamed that we got dressed up and went to a building (I didn’t know it was the crematorium). She climbed into a box on a conveyor belt and then traveled into the flames, still alive. I was screaming trying to get the conveyor belt to stop, and woke up. It’s obvious I don’t like cremation :(

[mylife]

LOL!

[mylife]

God Bless Him!

[Keith in Iowa]

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/going-green-environmentally-friendly-freeze-dried-funeral

[rawcatslyentist]

Dust is the natural state of the universe.

200 trillion years ago our solar system was interstellar dust.

200 trillion years from now our solar system will be interstellar dust again.

This period in time is a very brief existence in eternity that we are formed dust.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Funeral arrangements are to comfort the living.

The dead don't care.

I say, whatever works for the survivors ought to be good enough for the rest of the world.

[LucyT]

This is a gross question, but what about people who were eaten by wild animals?

[fso301]

Let's say you'd like to be laid to rest in the enormous veterans cemetery in San Diego overlooking the Pacific ~ you can be cremated and go into a columbarium (that big wall around the place) or you can go somewhere else. Then, there's ordinary whole body burial ~ where you decompose somewhat slowly ~ maybe over centuries, but in the end, combustion does take place and you end up as dust. My wife and I are both veterans. We choose to NOT be buried near those who didn't serve ~

Neither old nor new testament scripture places any unique requirements on burials. Over the centuries, traditions have arisen but they are just traditions. Scripture doesn't care as to whether a person wishes to have their body deposited in a composting machine, incinerated or stuffed, mounted and placed on display in a museum.

[baltodog]

The bible is a book of fables, written by people who had nothing to do with Christ.
Follow your heart, and do what suits you.

[tanuki]

Being a Catholic, I researched this. Apparently the Church is alright with the practice as long as the remains are held together. So, so much for my plans of being scattered over Venice Beach...

[MHGinTN]

My smart ex-wife had a novel idea for the ashes of the departed: have a bust fashioned of the person cremated, using the ashes of the deceased. They would make great ‘garden companions’ don’tchaknow. Never talking back, good listeners, too.

[narses]

baltodog wrote:

The bible is a book of fables, written by people who had nothing to do with Christ.

Really? Just wow.

[Mrs. Don-o]

The Catholic Church is against cremation IF the purpose of the cremation is to express contempt for the doctrine of the resurrection of the body (as was the case, I have heard, for atheists around the era of Voltaire and later, who insisted upon cremation for that purpose); IF it's meant to express a non-Christian doctrine such as pantheism; or if it's meant to disrespect the body of some disfavored group (e.g. cremating the dead who are from some despised race, nationality, or class.)

If those motives do not apply, and there is a legitimate reason to want to cremate a body (like in Japan, where there is practically no land available for cemeteries), cremation is allowed if the remains are treated reverently.

[Rennes Templar]

“Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.”

Longfellow

[narses]

Burial in sacred grounds is the correct choice, either as an intact body or ashes, iirc.