# Atheists - Opinions of Graveyards

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-opinions-of-graveyards/468021>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 15, 2008, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-opinions-of-graveyards/468021 "2008-10-15T11:20:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-opinions-of-graveyards/468021/61 "2008-10-20T08:22:29Z")

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I was watching “River Cottage - Autumn” yesterday on one of the E4 channels and a new use for cemeteries has been found:

Use the spaces between graves to grow fruit and vegetables.

Fantastic idea, I like the idea of being fertilizer when I go.

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**Author:** ![meenie7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@meenie7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meenie7)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-opinions-of-graveyards/468021/62 "2008-10-20T08:48:28Z")

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I am an atheist and I like graveyards. I used to go to the big Jewish cemetery up the street from my school when I was in college and “steal” names for characters in my stories. There was a small area that was obviously a cluster of graves of tiny babies, and there were a few stones that just said “Sarah” on them – which, as I understand it, is like “Baby Doe” for a baby who died without a name. Since Sarah is my name, I found it very cool, and sat with the little Sarahs and did my homework more than once.

I don’t have any particular love for being buried in a box, but I would love a monument or statue in a cemetery, because I love the interesting statues and monuments when I go visit and I would want to intrigue other people of a similar bent in the future. My little way to live on. 🙂

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**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-opinions-of-graveyards/468021/63 "2008-10-20T13:15:07Z")

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From my non-athiest point of view I see little use in dwelling over this mortal coil once I’ve done the appropriate shuffling off. I dislike the idea of taking up real estate to hold my bones forever so I definately wish to be cremated. It would be kind of cool to have my ashes interred in a nice decorative urn or ground up, mixed with a polymer and molded into something. Having my ashes molded into a small statue of me should be sufficently creepy.

However I do see the value of old cemetaries. When looking back over records to research geneology, burial information can be the difference between finding a link or not. But I think our record keeping is currently sufficient to allow anyone searching for me several hundred years from now to find me pretty easily.

Just look for a small creepy statue of a fat guy with glasses.

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