Cremation was a pagan practice in both Rome and the Germanic lands. It was a way to speed either rebirth in another life or to destroy the body because there was nothing left.
Both implied that the body was not being resurrected
OK, so it’s more a cultural trait (distinguishing themselves from the surrounding pagans) than a fundamental religious doctrine, then. That makes more sense.
I agree with both of your points. Cremation is a deliberate desecration of the human body which is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. It is a pagan custom that is antithetical to Christianity as it at least implicitly denies the resurrection of the body. In many cases it was done explicitly for that reason. Until the 1950’s pretty much every Christian denomination prohibited it. Today I believe only the Orthodox Church still holds the line on that. Even the Roman Catholics, who once condemned the practice with great ferocity, have folded.
All of which said, I have to agree with some of the posts critical of the modern American practice of embalming, which also strikes me as being semi-pagan. Most countries don’t do that to their dead.