Sorry if this is morbid, but I am curious to know other atheists thoughts on what they want done with their remains after they die. I have given this a lot of thought and am considering filling out the form to have my body donated to science. It's free and I just don't want an expensive open casket funeral or religious service. I don't know how my family will react but I know I don't want to be buried. The organization that I read about sends cremated remains to the family 6-12 weeks after the donation.
My choice is 10 minutes in hell. Cremation.
If anyone wants to, can juggle with the ashes.
I'm happy to be an organ donor. I never gave much thought to giving my body to a group of drunken grad students. I hope they can manage without me.
I am planning to be donated to a body farm. Google it. My brother is a professor of forensic sciences and he got me interested in this. Let some one have fun with my stiffy when I am gone.
If you want to assist future medical students, it is a good idea. I think it is morbid not to cremate, if you don't donate. And the ashes should be scattered, not kept on a shelf.
I like the idea of rotting in the sun so to speak. To me, it would be as close to "reincarnation" by allowing your atoms direct access to the "winds of life"…..sounds bloody romantic eh?
Quote from: aitm on February 27, 2016, 08:26:21 AM
I am planning to be donated to a body farm. Google it. My brother is a professor of forensic sciences and he got me interested in this. Let some one have fun with my stiffy when I am gone.
Well maybe, but I'd want to be more than a statistical piece of data if they throw me in a dumpster for two weeks just to see what happens. At minimum I'd want a by-line: "Within a few minutes after his death, Subject SGOS, a profligate misfit from an obscure forum for misanthropes was placed ass up in a dumpster behind his house. After 17 days, a consensus of neighbors reported that he still looked "pretty good (more or less)", and several said they could still recognize him from smell alone. When this evidence was presented in court, a jury quickly convicted his brother (Jerry, the Mongoose) of tampering with evidence, who was then sentenced to 16 years in Federal Prison."
I'd want to be a legacy, rather than just a statistic.
My mother had her body donated to science--to Oregon State University, to be exact. When she died, the body was taken away. When they were through doing what they were doing, they cremated her body and returned it in an urn to our family. My mother insisted there be no funeral or burial rite. She wanted something like all of the family and friends that wanted to attend a wake like meeting, featuring cakes, cookies (two of her favorite things) coffee and soda--and stories of mom. That all came to pass--and I like it!
I have not attended a funeral of any of my family and friends for the last 60 yrs. I will not be attending any in the future. I do go to funerals that my wife wants to attend, but I go stickily to support her and nobody else. Yeah, I know, I'm weird (see the 'weird' thread). Get used to it.....................
Depends. We are planning to donate my wife's body for MS research. In Utah there are so many people volunteering their corpses that they actually charge money, rather than pay it. But SOP for the bodies they accept is cremation and returning it in an urn.
You need to check with local authorities/universities and also morticians, since they are usually the ones that handle the bodies.
Maybe the "atheist nation" should establish a fund raising. Whenever an evil unbeliever dies, the AN carts the body to an active volcano and charges christians 20 bucks a pop to watch the evil person's body flung into the bowels of hell itself.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAH
Quote from: aitm on February 27, 2016, 09:46:54 AM
Maybe the "atheist nation" should establish a fund raising. Whenever an evil unbeliever dies, the AN carts the body to an active volcano and charges christians 20 bucks a pop to watch the evil person's body flung into the bowels of hell itself.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAH
Not a bad idea. The only issue would be transporting a body to an active volcano. There certainly are plenty of them.
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_volcanos
Quote from: aitm on February 27, 2016, 09:46:54 AM
Maybe the "atheist nation" should establish a fund raising. Whenever an evil unbeliever dies, the AN carts the body to an active volcano and charges christians 20 bucks a pop to watch the evil person's body flung into the bowels of hell itself.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAH
It's certainly an improvement. In ancient times they used a virgin girl. What a waste that was...
Quote from: josephpalazzo on February 27, 2016, 10:52:43 AM
It's certainly an improvement. In ancient times they used a virgin girl. What a waste that was...
Come to Utah. We got in virgins in holding patterns waiting for missionaries to drag them off to the temple. The "Singles Wards" are hunting territory for predators. A raped/non virgin girl in Mormon speak is a "licked cupcake" and no longer worthy. Girls that get raped are so humiliated and traumatized that half the time they don't tell anybody. That is the love of Jesus right there.
Quote from: stromboli on February 27, 2016, 11:08:33 AM
Come to Utah. We got in virgins in holding patterns waiting for missionaries to drag them off to the temple. The "Singles Wards" are hunting territory for predators. A raped/non virgin girl in Mormon speak is a "licked cupcake" and no longer worthy. Girls that get raped are so humiliated and traumatized that half the time they don't tell anybody. That is the love of Jesus right there.
Joseph Smith basically turned the clock backward and instituted polygamy. Now, I don't know why Smith wanted polygamy, probably had personal reasons - didn't liked to be tied down to one woman, who knows, but polygamy is in the bible. The Jews were polygamous until circa 1000 CE. The early Christians were also polygamous. It was the Romans who were monogamous and looked down on the Jews and Christians, considering them as primitives. So the early Christians eventually realized that to get new recruits in the Roman empire and be considered legitimate, decided at one point that monogamy was the way to go. As to the desirability of a virgin, as I said in another thread, in ancient times, virgins were reserved for gods to copulate with humans. Virgin meant unspoiled, unstained, the closest thing to perfection, and that's what a god would want.
Quote from: stromboli on February 27, 2016, 11:08:33 AM
Come to Utah. We got in virgins in holding patterns waiting for missionaries to drag them off to the temple. The "Singles Wards" are hunting territory for predators. A raped/non virgin girl in Mormon speak is a "licked cupcake" and no longer worthy. Girls that get raped are so humiliated and traumatized that half the time they don't tell anybody. That is the love of Jesus right there.
At least they are not stoned to death.
I think that Joseph Smith must have plagiarised some ideas from the Quran.
There are a few similarities too obvious to ignore.
Quote from: aitm on February 27, 2016, 09:46:54 AM
Maybe the "atheist nation" should establish a fund raising. Whenever an evil unbeliever dies, the AN carts the body to an active volcano and charges christians 20 bucks a pop to watch the evil person's body flung into the bowels of hell itself.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAH
That seriously made me laugh out loud
Quote from: aitm on February 27, 2016, 08:45:30 AM
I like the idea of rotting in the sun so to speak. To me, it would be as close to "reincarnation" by allowing your atoms direct access to the "winds of life"…..sounds bloody romantic eh?
Lakota sky burial?
Quote from: aitm on February 27, 2016, 09:46:54 AM
Maybe the "atheist nation" should establish a fund raising. Whenever an evil unbeliever dies, the AN carts the body to an active volcano and charges christians 20 bucks a pop to watch the evil person's body flung into the bowels of hell itself.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAH
That worked for the early Greek philosopher, Empedocles ... when he got old, he thru himself into Mt Etna in Sicily.
Quote from: Mike Cl on February 27, 2016, 09:07:46 AM
My mother had her body donated to science--to Oregon State University, to be exact. When she died, the body was taken away. When they were through doing what they were doing, they cremated her body and returned it in an urn to our family. My mother insisted there be no funeral or burial rite. She wanted something like all of the family and friends that wanted to attend a wake like meeting, featuring cakes, cookies (two of her favorite things) coffee and soda--and stories of mom. That all came to pass--and I like it!
I have not attended a funeral of any of my family and friends for the last 60 yrs. I will not be attending any in the future. I do go to funerals that my wife wants to attend, but I go stickily to support her and nobody else. Yeah, I know, I'm weird (see the 'weird' thread). Get used to it.....................
Funerals are rather theistic, particular an Irish wake. In Celtic belief, you alternate between two worlds. The other world (not this one) is a better place ... so people celebrate your passing here, to a better place. When you die in the other world, you are going to a worse place, so at funerals in the other world, they are funereal.
Quote from: aitm on February 27, 2016, 08:26:21 AM
I am planning to be donated to a body farm. Google it. My brother is a professor of forensic sciences and he got me interested in this. Let some one have fun with my stiffy when I am gone.
I did Google this and I think it is a great back up plan if my body doesn't meet the criteria to be donated to science at TOD. Maybe sign up for both and they can fight over me ;-)
I'm donating my remains to Oscar Meyer... Hot dogs anyone?
Nobody will take my dead carcass because I have hepatitis C which excludes me.. Evidently they only want perfectly healthy dead people.
My kids, however, in lieu of me getting turned into all purpose all meat weaners are to have my body put in an envelope and shipped to the naval yards in Philadelphia for burial at sea..
Quote from: Baruch on February 27, 2016, 01:36:51 PM
Funerals are rather theistic, particular an Irish wake. In Celtic belief, you alternate between two worlds. The other world (not this one) is a better place ... so people celebrate your passing here, to a better place. When you die in the other world, you are going to a worse place, so at funerals in the other world, they are funereal.
The only value for a funeral I could ever figure out was as a reminder or happening to let children that a person is really dead. If my daughter's mother had died, I would have taken her to her mother's funeral. In my view, my daughter would be better off if she had a concrete idea that mom had died. But that would have only been if that happened prior to the time when she could fully understand death. After that time, I would take he only if she wanted to go. Other than that, I have no use for them.
I'm afraid that if I were leave my body to science, its only practical use would be to serve as a warning to others.
Years ago, I felt pretty strongly that I'd want to be cremated after death (but not before). I think most of my motivation for that had to do with not wanting to occupy a burial plot in a cemetery which could then, in theory at least, never be used for anything else for potentially hundreds of years. There was something about the thought of 'taking up space' like that for such a long time after my existence that seemed very arrogant to me.
Honestly these days I'm at the point where I kind of don't give a crap what happens to my remains. At this point once my remains are well, remains, I really couldn't care less what happens to them. Bury me, burn me, prop me up in the corner and make me into some sort of morbid bizzare magazine rack, I really don't care.
One of my cousins was an atheist and he had a pretty good funeral. He only had pictures of him when he was younger and also his service in the Navy. There was no religious component- family members and friends stood up and told stories about his life (he was a pretty raucous guy, but loyal to wife and family) a very outgoing personality. He wrote a letter that was read at the funeral. All it said was don't mourn, he had a great life and enjoyed it the best he could and urged everyone to do the same. It was much better than the other funerals I've been to.
I have a will that says I should be buried the cheapest way possible, which is cremation. So up in smoke I go.
http://www.alcor.org
Either that or complete desintegration. Depends on how i'm feeling that day.
Quote from: Baruch on February 27, 2016, 08:36:07 AM
And the ashes should be scattered, not kept on a shelf.
My dad helps decorate my printer center. You can see the edge of his box between the wood burning template and the mouse. He's holding up Arcane Legions.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v690/androidlove/dad_zps6t3ibumh.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/androidlove/media/dad_zps6t3ibumh.jpg.html)
Wherever my dead body can be most useful is where it should go. But please, don't let me render a plot of land useless.
Burial at sea is free thanks to the US Navy. The only expense may be transporting your carcass to the naval yards. They used to be in Philadelphia and San Diego.. I'm not sure where they do it now, but if you have an insurance policy that covers body transport I guess that might cover it..
Oh! Here it is.. http://www.seaservices.com/veterans.htm
$195 is cheaper than a nice shining mahogany box nobody will ever see once they plant you in the ground..
I have donated my body to a faculty of medicine in a univ where I live. So I'm a proud walking talking cadavre and I think that everyone should do it.
Quote from: AllRight on February 27, 2016, 06:41:08 AM
Sorry if this is morbid, but I am curious to know other atheists thoughts on what they want done with their remains after they die. I have given this a lot of thought and am considering filling out the form to have my body donated to science. It's free and I just don't want an expensive open casket funeral or religious service. I don't know how my family will react but I know I don't want to be buried. The organization that I read about sends cremated remains to the family 6-12 weeks after the donation.
I'm realizing my age recently, somehow I hadn't so much considered this part. I like the donate idea...I'm all in.
Good luck with your decision, this thread helped me make mine.
Whiskey bent & hell bound!