Final Choices

[NotAnAngel]

Not that bothered really, although I dont like the idea of taking up space by being buried. Leaving my body to medical science seems reasonable. Im not an organ donor, logical arguement says I should be, and I have spent a lot of time persuading myself I should be one. Peculiar religious types beliefs say no.... Feel free to try to persuade me otherwise, yours may be an arguement I havent heard or thought of before..

[wolf]

If your religion won't let you be a donor, they probably won't let you be anything but buried.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by NotAnAngel

Peculiar religious types beliefs say no.... Feel free to try to persuade me otherwise, yours may be an arguement I havent heard or thought of before..

Because it's what you want. There is no other concern.

Jewish burials involve a lot of do this’s and more do not do that’s, (most of what people hear are misconceptions.) I will give you an example of the do's, (ultra orthodox, which I tasted.)

My mentor, Levi, has promised to open the box a crack, before I’m buried, and whisper my Hebrew name, doveed shaul ben barauch ha cohain, (try spelling that in sixth grade, dyslexic or not.) The reason for this ritual is when the spirit leaves the body it is fucking confused, does not know whom what or where it is. Hearing its name begins its trip to Gan Eden, which takes twelve months to get there.

Major do, body must be intact.

When you see pics of the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Israel, you will notice a guy, usually with a beard, picking up pieces of flesh and organs and later he will do his best sorting them into specific individuals. I will pass on that job, if ever offered.

It's your Nashama. I am sure.

[BigV]

Yo, dov.

This ain't Jeopardy. The answers are commonly preceded by the questions, if you please.

Nashama? That little car back in the day? Wha?

Originally Posted by BigV

Yo, dov.
Nashama? That little car back in the day? Wha?

Nashama = Jewish Soul

[BigV]

Thanks.

Interesting that. I can tell you for a fact that when the body dies, the soul departs at once, Fragments or entire, makes no diff. I sat by my father's death bed for three days and alternately talked to him and read aloud to him from the Bible. He was unconscious the entire time, but people aren't always so unconscious as you might think as I have learned from a near death experience of my own. Anyhow, when he breathed his final breath, that was it. What was left of his earthly remains bore no resemblence to the man I had known and loved. There was just a dead body lying in a hospital bed. Where -ever my father was, it wasn't there.

His final wish had been to be buried back in the family cemetary plot in Kentucky. So, I had his body cremated and flew back to Kentucky with the ashes. I kept the urn with his ashes in my living room until it was time to catch the plane back East for the in-urnment and the memorial service. At the end of the service, a coyote (??????????) - yes, it was a coyote, several other family members present commented on it - appeared in the field opposite the cemetary. It gave a single, long sad howl and then vanished off in the tall grass...

[Tonchi]

Originally Posted by NotAnAngel

Feel free to try to persuade me otherwise, yours may be an arguement I havent heard or thought of before..

Let me explain why the rationale of keeping the body intact, including burying amputated appendages and all organs with you, is absurd. Even if you never read Patricia Cornwell, you know that depending on the kind of ground you are buried in, not even bones remain of a body after several hundred years (That is why the Egyptians were big on mummification). In fact, MOST of the graves in the USA prior to a fairly recent time are officially "lost". We do not know where the burial was or it got washed away or other misfortunes (including airport expansions and condominium developments) either destroyed or scattered the contents. Even in primitive Europe, where this business of keeping the body "intact" got cemented by the Catholic Church, graves were recycled constantly and the remaining contents of the graves which could be located were unceremoneously dumped in a charnel house, and even THAT feature of the cemeteries did not survive in the burial grounds of Europe and the bits and pieces gone to places unknown. So what is God supposed to do, all these millions of people perhaps can't be raised from the dead? What about people who died thousands of miles from anybody who knew them, what about the people who were vaporized at the World Trade Center too? Alferd Packer's victims will not rise again on Judgment Day? Ask yourself what sense this primitive superstition really makes. IF you believe in the God of the Bible, and IF you believe that said God is not only capable of raising someone from the dead in a physical, "uncorrupted" form but WILL do it, don't you think he can manage without a plot map and full casket? Because if he can't, why does anybody believe this stuff anyway? And if he CAN, he doesn't need you to tell him how to do it. He got you here once, he can do it again. Do not insult His intelligence

Go ahead and do what ever is respectful and tidy with the mortal remains, is is not something you are going to have to worry about beyond that.

[Beestie]

I just don't understand why a blind person (for example) has to remain blind so that someone has the satisfaction of knowing that their healthy visual organs can rot.

To refuse to share what you cannot use...

[Tonchi]

Because it's "God's Will"?

[mrnoodle]

Because they're my mofukin eyeballs, and i'll decide if they go in the collection jar?

Yeah, I'll donate. I'm just sayin.


liberals. sheesh.

[May]

I would die happy anytime..Death might sound a scary thing for some because we are not used to the idea of it..is not part of our everyday life although everyday people die...Why most people afraid of death?Maybe is the fear of the unknown?what do you think?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by May

I would die happy anytime..Death might sound a scary thing for some because we are not used to the idea of it..is not part of our everyday life although everyday people die...Why most people afraid of death?Maybe is the fear of the unknown?what do you think?

Healthy living things are programmed to avoid death. Fear of death keeps them alive and breeding longer. Fear of death is natural and healthy. Living things that welcome death are more likely to die before reproducing, so their genes and outlook on life are not passed along to their offspring. Those that fear death, are more careful, and live longer. They pass those genes and attitudes along to their offspring. So there is a strong instinct to fear death.

Also, a thinking being knows that death is the end. Most people don't want the ride to stop. They look toward the end of the ride as a sad or scary thing.

If there is no afterlife, when you die you simply cease to exist, so you will be neither happy nor sad. If you think there is an afterlife, you have the fear of the unknown thrown in there as well. Unless you think 72 virgins are waiting for you, then you embrace death.