May i ask you all a question?

I know this is a personal question to most, but i find it a valid one, so im asking my ATS community to enlighten me on their choice:

Burial or Cremation,

I recently had a friend pass, of a condition where a time frame was given by his doctor, and sure enough, the time came and well, my friend moved on.

Well before his time of passing him and i were discussing wether he had any preference if he were to be buried or cremated, being the non-religious type he mention that he would just go with the norm, buried.

Our conversation delved into the possible pros and cons of which would be the preferable for the populous, though we theorised that alot of factors would come about making such a decision, some of the reasons may include;

-Religious beliefs
-Personal Preference
-Family Traditions
-And even cost.

As my sister pointed out, she has ticked the box for organ doner, so cremation is her pick, as its cost effective and she doesnt belive she will need them afterwards.

On the other side, a friend prefers the idea of a burial, with personal effects, and assuming they may need all of this after their time on earth.


The process of a modern Day Creamtion Part 1:



and Part 2



So i ask of you my fellow ATS'rs, which would you choose and why ??

reply to post by scubagravy


I want to get frozen in liquid nitrogen by Alcor...I just haven't paid for the necessary insurance right this minute...so if I died right now, I would be very very displeased...

Oh, hmm ok, is that so you can be thawed at a later time ?? thats a freaky process, you would have to be frozen alive, and at what point would you say ok, lets do it?, soon enought o still have your youth for later, or just when your old so you get to see the new worldlater but in an old decrepid body ??

Thanks for your flags my friends, but i would really like your opinion........

This involves all of us.

reply to post by scubagravy


Definitely cremation - think about the world with people buried - no.

The answer is to cremate. Also, cremation is better I think.

When you think of all the catholics who bury - that will soon be over because of the logistics.

If I had a choice in how my own dead body was to be handled, I would pick the cheapest and quickest possible route. I'd be dead, so I don't care. Demanding a fancy (and expensive) ritualized burial seems a little bit self centered to me, so burn me in some logs for all I care. The only lasting relic of my existence will be in the memories of those I loved and cared for, thats the only thing that matters anyway. When I'm gone, I'm gone. What my friends do after that is up to them. As long as nobody uses my death to promote some kind of religious crap in my name.

On that note... I think it would be pretty cool to be dumped into a large deep lake and become fossilized .

I am going to claim the possibility that I may never die.

Positive thinking.

I guess if I had to choose. It would be burial. No fire please.

[edit on 12-6-2010 by randyvs]

reply to post by randyvs


I like that idea, but i dont know how much blood i could suck to do so

reply to post by RemainSkeptical


Ive heard some say, just feed me to the sharks, recycle me as they say.

reply to post by scubagravy


Hey, a great idea - feed me to the sharks! Ugh, NO! I could not do that.

Except, what if your soul or spirit had a horror of being fed to the sharks?

reply to post by scubagravy

I like that idea, but i dont know how much blood i could suck to do so

Then BP should be a shoe in, they definetly suck.

Body ejected into the sun. But seriously I would pick cremation. I would not want my family to live with the burden of visiting my grave. But if those futurists are right, in the future we might not even die. Unlikely though, I doubt we would merge with robots till at least 2100 (if our civilization is alive then)

Double Post

[edit on 12-6-2010 by Maddogkull]

I'm not going to die


Or is that too ridiculous ?

Can I just raise the question, who would actually want to work in cremation ?? Seriously.
I always figured I would be cremated. Although the thought of imagining myself burning to a crisp is not so appealing anymore after watching those videos ..

well for the sole point of not wanting to wake up in my grave i'd say burn this sh*t.. also I'd rather have my loved ones look at a picture while reminiscing then have them stand in the rain on a saturday looking at some stones... Its the memory that counts...

reply to post by catwhoknows


Catholic people can be cremated. There was a time when it wasn't permitted but that has since changed.

I remember my Granny telling me about a time many many years ago in Glasgow (we're a Glaswegian family), perhaps the early 60's, when she was on a night out with a mixed-group of Catholic and Protestant friends in a social club or something. A Protestant friend of hers said to her "I see that you Catholics are now able to be burned after death...." to which she replied "Aye, but the great thing is that people have been burning Protestants for years"

My Granny was a devout Catholic, my Grandfather too, and both of them were cremated. A heavy smoker too, she had rosary beads in with her, and my Aunt put a cigarette in "and a couple of matches with her so she can have a wee smoke" to which I replied "It's not as if she's gonna need a light now, is it?"...the next 5 seconds seemed like an eternity until the hysterical laughter began.

So I'd choose cremation purely for the comedy factor. I don't want people mourning my death. I want them to celebrate my life. Play my favourite songs, have a laugh, get drunk and have a right wee shindig. And I'm sure people would have fun with my ashes sitting on the mantlepiece.

[edit on 12/6/2010 by itchy_tartan_blanket]

[edit on 12/6/2010 by itchy_tartan_blanket]

Probably cremated.

If for any reason other than it uses up less space.

Surely there will come a time when we run out of space for human burial! Also after a couple of generations there will be nobody who would have remembered you to visit your grave. Unless of course you achive famous cult status for some reason. There are tens of thousands of graves that have been damaged and weathered and are now sadly unreadable.
I don't need a marker to state my existence.
It's cremation for me, just not quite yet.

I'd like to be an organ donor if I haven't worn them all out by the time I die. So I'd probably just donate my body to medical science..let them marvel at my beauty, imagine if I ended up in a text book ha!

reply to post by scubagravy

which would you choose and why ??

It's polite to return things you've borrowed when you're done using them. The material of my body came from earth, so I think it would be nice to return it when I'm done with it.

That said, apart from off-planet migration, there isn't really any way to fail to return it. It's just a question of aesthetics. Burial, be it in the ground or at sea, basically means your body gets eaten. Either by worms and bacteria, or by fish. Since the material of my body, given back to earth will eventually end up used by some other creature eventually anyway, that's probably acceptable.

But if we're going to look at it that way, we might say, for example...that we really like cats, so rather than be eaten by worms or fish, maybe we could feed our corpse to tigers at a zoo. Choose who gets to use the material next by feeding it to them. But teaching animals to eat people might not be the best idea, so it might be better to feed our bodies to people. For example, your funeral could be a big party where friends and loved ones cook and eat your corpse. But then you run into issues of disease and sanitation, so some people might not be comfortable with that.

Of course, cremation avoids most of these issues, and your ash can be spread across the ground, and if you'd like maybe you can plant nice trees and grass there.

But overall, personally...simply as a matter of aesthetics, I think my preference would be burial in the ground. No preservatives, no coffin...nothing to delay the relclaiming process. Simply a direct burial in earth. Why? Because while I understand that the worms and bugs and plants and things will use my body eventually, again...the whole point here is to return what was borrowed.

And burial seems like to most direct way to do that.