The Right To Be Buried In The Way You Want

AsterOids · January 2004

<div class="IPBDescription">Or why i dont want to pay 3000$ to die</div> In Canada, i dont think that you can be buried anywhere else than a cemetary. For me, that bites because i would like to be buried under a young tree, so he can grow from me... I dont beleive in afterlife so it does not bother me where i will be buried, but i think that we should have the right to be buried where we want, by our friends, not some priest whom i never talked with before. Add to that the cost of the burial, funeral service etc, i dont like the idea at all of having to pay to die so some undertaker can make money off my corpse like a vulture eats carcasses. Of course i dont mean that you could drop corpses just anywhere, but you know, just like you cant drop trash anywhere, it would had to be regulated a bit.

EDIT: Personnally, i think that a forest made by a family and/or a bunch of friends over the generations would totally rock, and be a marvelous thing to take a walk in after a few generations, each tree with a picture and a description of the deceased, buried near their friends and family. Most beautiful. HEY I JUST FOUND THE SOLUTION TO DEFORESTATION!!! <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

I will look into it because i am getting older and starting to think about how i will depart this world.

What do you think?

Should we be allowed to be buried where we want?

Why should we have to pay to die?

Are the restrictions on how burials are done still heavily entrenched in christianity? (i think so)

Insignus · January 2004

Here lies an Atheist,
All dressed up,
And nowhere to go,

I dont intend to die.

Maveric · January 2004

We should be allowed to be burried where ever we want to, as long as there are enough permits/laws/regulations to do so.

Paying to die sucks. I just want to sit and wait for the end to come, not sit and wait for the end to come after paying the gate keeper $5.02.

But when i go, i want to be put in a gold mine...
Or thrown into a volcano...
Maybe tossed into Chernoble's nuclear reactor...
[Ground up and used as limited edition human paper? Now with 100% human!]

pismofilmdude · January 2004

I want to save up enough to have my creamated ashes turned into babules like marbles (there are companies that actually do this!) and have them given out as favors at my wake.

BTW - I'm Irish. Did you know that the difference between and Irish wedding and an Irish funeral is one less drunk?

tbZBeAst · January 2004

IF I die <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'> I'd like to be cremated and turned into jewelery for my missus. I know its tasteless, but we both think it'd be hilarious.

"Oh sweetie, so sorry about your husband. Those earrings are diviiiiiine, what are they?"

"My husband"

heh.

Cronos · January 2004

If I die, it'll be either in a flaming ball of fire, or in a place far far far away from this mudball.

For all intents and purposes, I plan to live forever.

Ultra_SS2_Vegeta · January 2004

FFS WHY U TALK ABOUT IT?<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'>
someone can think u got so horrible life talking about death...
like u live in place that if u go in bus someone will explode to u on ur face...
FFS talk something real :\

Cronos · January 2004

Whats wrong with talking about death? It hurts no one ultimately...

Phy · January 2004

The idea of the trees is a very apealling one to me. The thought that someday, decades from now, someone will be shaded by a tree that nurtured from my body, and still might have a peice of my existence in it is a very humbling feeling.

Marine0I · January 2004

But you wont know/care when your dead, because you will be nothing. You cant think, you cant do, you dont exist.

Very few people/atheists fail to grasp the awful finality of the death that they believe in i.e. no afterlife. In the back of their mind is this idea that they will somehow be "spectating." But they wont. When you cease to exist, nothing matters, you dont look on, just nothing.

Why worry about your funeral guys - by the time you need to have one, nothing will matter to you, because you wont exist.

tbZBeAst · January 2004

So, what, we should reassure people while they're alive, then burn them in the streets?

It offers comfort to some people to think of permanancy beyond their physical existance. Similarly for relatives/friends, they have something as a memento of you. Its not about how you'll feel after you die, but instead how you feel <b>about</b> after you die.

Trent_Hawkins · January 2004

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Marine01 @ Jan 21 2004, 07:53 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Why worry about your funeral guys - by the time you need to have one, nothing will matter to you, because you wont exist.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
It may not matter to us any longer at that point, but it might matter to our loved ones when our time comes. Personally I'm opting for a solution that would cost my family as little as possible. If I'm going to cease to exist after I die (no after life for me, thanks) I'd rather pay as little for it as possible.

AsterOids · January 2004

" FFS WHY U TALK ABOUT IT?
someone can think u got so horrible life talking about death...
like u live in place that if u go in bus someone will explode to u on ur face...
FFS talk something real :\ "

Well someone would be wrong, although my soul is too dark for my own good sometimes, ive had a pretty good life with friends and fun.

I dont see what the big fuss is all about, we all die someday, why is it shocking to talk about that?

And death is real

EDIT:

"Why worry about your funeral guys - by the time you need to have one, nothing will matter to you, because you wont exist. "

Yes but i want to take it out of christian hands, it is MY death not theirs and i intend to have it done the way I want, not that they want.

Also, i dont want my family to have to pay for the generic rock thingy with my name on it, the funeral service etc... id rather have something that my friends and family built themselves, that means something.

Insignus · January 2004

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>But you wont know/care when your dead, because you will be nothing. You cant think, you cant do, you dont exist.

Very few people/atheists fail to grasp the awful finality of the death that they believe in i.e. no afterlife. In the back of their mind is this idea that they will somehow be "spectating." But they wont. When you cease to exist, nothing matters, you dont look on, just nothing.

Why worry about your funeral guys - by the time you need to have one, nothing will matter to you, because you wont exist. </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

You never cease to exist. The memory remains, the stains and the pains.
An echo, a shadow,
What was, What could happen again.
If you believe it, whos to say
that it wont happen only to you?
After all, we create reality.

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>FFS WHY U TALK ABOUT IT?
someone can think u got so horrible life talking about death...
like u live in place that if u go in bus someone will explode to u on ur face...
FFS talk something real :\ </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
If you think its bad now, wait till the 3rd millenium rolls around. Now THATS gonna be a party.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Life is pain! Anyone who says different is selling something
-The Princess Bride

Insignus · January 2004

Another death though

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
If you think its bad now, wait till the 3rd millenium rolls around. Now THATS gonna be a party.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Now what if i just created a proto reality, an alternate dimension if you will, in which billions of people die around the turn of the third millenium. Now extend the thought thinking about how your going to be buried means that somewhere along the line, you thought of how you were going to die. Now apply the idea of proto reality (or alternate dimensiON) and you wind up with the idea that you just killed you in another dimension with a thought!

Crunch on that one why dont ya

Cronos · January 2004

If that is so Insignus, then the mere act of thinking would by course create alternate proto-realities. Each thought would spawn an infinity of universes, though some thoughts would kill nigh infinite others in infinite other proto-realities, other thoughts would spawn infinite universes in which infinite others could come to life.

The forces of life and death are balanced in this scenario. If you think a thought of death and kill someone in one proto-reality, then by a means another you in another proto-reality would think of something else to create life in another proto-reality. It all evens out in the end.

Marine0I · January 2004

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Insignus @ Jan 22 2004, 05:37 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> You never cease to exist. The memory remains, the stains and the pains.
An echo, a shadow,
What was, What could happen again.
If you believe it, whos to say
that it wont happen only to you?
After all, we create reality.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
In short - tripe.

Sure the effects of your existance remain, but you yourself? You dont. You are nothing, cause you are dead.

Memories arent what make you exist, the effects of your being arent what make you exist. You living makes you exist. You die, and you dont exist for all events and purposes relating to you.

tbZBeAst · January 2004

However, even after "you" cease to exist, your mortal remains.....remain. Planning for their disposal is surely your right, and possibly even duty?

Marine0I · January 2004

Not really beast - your mortal remains know exactly what to do when you die. I wouldnt say its a duty - if anyone wants to sue me for failing in my duties after I'm dead they are welcome to do so <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>.

Sure you can put a little bit aside for your funeral so as to less burden your friends/family - but then again, when you are dead, they wont mean anything to you anymore anyway. Because nothing will mean anything to you.

Kinda like planning to go on every single ride in a theme park when you are 90 - but by the time 90 roles around you dont want to/cant/will be dead anyway. Excercise in futility. And these loved ones that you are trying to ease the burden on - soon enough they too will die and cease to exist. Does it really make you feel better that during their similiarily doomed and pointless existance, that you managed to ease a very small part of it?

im_lost · January 2004

Just because it won't matter after we die doesn't mean that we shouldn't care about it now. If that were the case, then what's the point in life?

Insignus · January 2004

One of my fav quotes for yall atheists
Here lies an atheist,
All dressed up,
And nowhere to go.

When your an atheist, you cease to exist.
Belief , any belief, will send you to whatever afterlife.

Umbraed_Monkey · January 2004

Weither it matters or not, the tree idea is still awesome. Now that you said it, I cant imagine a better way to leave your 'shell'.

Btw, back when I was in hong kong, my folks used to grow plants on my grandfather's grave (in a cemetery). Its not nearly as majestic as a hujazz tree, but its still sorta neat.

SkulkBait · January 2004

The point you seem to be missing, Marine01, is that we care NOW what will happen to people who cared about us, ect. It gives us comfort right friggen NOW. One of the big differences I find between agnostics/atheists and the religious people I know (mostly theists) is that they fear their eventual death, and my guess is that their inability to cope with that why they choose to believe in whatever such fantasies that they do. I know, not fear, know, that I will one day die, and I'm pretty sure that it will be the end of my existance (I alternate between atheism and agnosticism depending on the day of the week, phase of the moon, and what kind of **** the human race is up to at the time). And it would give me comfort now to know that my eventual death will have some significance to the currently living, maybe someone was saved with an organ I don't need anymore, or maybe I'll die saving puppies from a burning building. It won't mean anything to me when my brain stops working, but it sure as hell means something right now.

Marine0I · January 2004

In that case - carry on my friends. Feelgood death planning <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

But keep in mind that once they die and become null, so too does your act of kindness. An act of kindness towards a now non existant being isn't very helpful in the grand scheme.

Trent_Hawkins · January 2004

Something tells me that in this "grand scheme" most of us mean squat anyway. So by this logic, performing any act (be it good or evil) becomes null; existence becomes null. So instead we need to have purpose; the idea, however much in vain, that one act that we perform just might touch at least one person or thing that actually will mean something in the scheme. OR we could invent the idea that we are rewarded for our good actions after we die, so we have something to reach for. But that might spark a whole different debate.

Marine0I · January 2004

Or it could just be that the recurring suspicion amongst humans that there is a grand scheme and a higher purpose is actually true - and acts of kindness are not pointless. Alleviating the suffering of others is not an excercise in self gratification etc. The idea that man is not a mere instant between nothingness and nothingness.

Not that thats a terribly popular idea these days.

Stakhanov · January 2004

As an atheist , I do fear death. But I do know that death won't make me completely useless all of a sudden.

Instead of ordering an expansive , comfy grave to "rest in peace" , why not just accept being carved by doctors so that the limbs remain useful at least to someone ? If I happen to die too old to have any useful organ left , all hope is not gone. As said earlier , helping the growth of a tree is a very honorable move. The tree will soak up more CO2 , softening the global warming.

The symbols are still here - parts of you are still living in someone or something. I would never accept being buried in a sterile grave. Why think about afterlife , if life never stops.

P-Khan · January 2004

Well, when I die I wanna do something good (at least once). Donate all my organs, everything they can take, please, take it.

After I'm stripped down with everything I have, I want to be cremated, and be sent into space inside a rocket, and with something like a greeting message from Earth.

X_Stickman · January 2004

I personally don't give a crap what they do to me when i'm dead. If i had a choice, however, i'd want to carry on being annoying. So lie, some kind of spooky noise set into my tombstone with a laser-trip thing that sets off a spooky "woowowowohwow" whenever anyone walks past.

Of course, that's if i die. I'm not planning on dying any time soon. I'll cure death. Don't worry.

GreyPaws · January 2004

Wow you know for the longest time I thought that I was the only one who wanted to be buried with a tree growing out of me. I read the 'Enders Game' series by Orson Scott Card and the pequenitos had an awesome way to be buried, your chest and back would be split open, your heart and organs placed neatly around the opening, a sapling would be planted inside you (roots in the ground through the opening in your back) and the tree grows literally absorbing you into it. I fell in love with that idea and was shocked to find out that there are MAJOR restrictions in America on how you can be buried, there are laws prohibiting the contamination of groundwater, and if anyone doesn’t already know, the nice pretty wooden casket you pay for gets placed into a concrete enclosure that is sealed and eventually becomes a vacuum.

My solution:

If you end up owning some land, after your death have the people taking care of you pay for a cremation. Pay the crematorium guy extra so he signs off that your body was in fact inside the casket. So now you have the paperwork that says you were toasted and you have the people taking care of you bury you on your property. <img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />

BaconTheory · January 2004

I must agree with this one. It seems kind of...stupid to pay $3000 just to be buried someplace pretty when you die.

The Right To Be Buried In The Way You Want

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