# Burn or Bury?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 22, 2002, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401 "2002-12-22T17:42:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TVGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVGuy)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/1 "2002-12-22T17:42:02Z")
[This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=152053) reminded of a conversation I was having with a few friends at a party the other night.
Cremation or burial? Lately, at least among my friends, there seems to be a groundswell of opinion that burial of a dead body in a box is a waste of resources, land, money, etc. I was actually surprised at how many people I know are planning to opt for cremation instead of burial.
Me? I decided years ago on cremation - mostly because I have no religious belief and felt that burning and simple disposal of the remains would be the best way to go - I certainly don’t need the ritual of the funeral, procession, burial, etc.
How about you?
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/2 "2002-12-22T17:48:02Z")
I have picked cremation because I am scared of being buried in a cramped box and slowly rotting away (I am not really kidding). Cremation just seems cleaner and more natural to me. It is also cheaper and uses less resources, etc. The only thing that burial has going for it in my mind is that it jives your relatives and descendents a place to visit and remember you. I like geneology and I enjoy visiting the graves of my ancestors.
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### Author:  [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/3 "2002-12-22T17:49:44Z")
I’ve always been partial to the idea of a sky burial. Or maybe Farsi Towers of the Dead catching on over here. Or being put out to sea in a burning longboat.
Failing all the above (the American funeral industry is so staid), I figure on cremation after they harvest all the salvageable organs for the still-living.
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### Author:  [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/4 "2002-12-22T17:52:36Z")
Well, I’m up for cremation. Not so much due to any particular religious reason, but two things have played into my decision. The first was an essay I read while I was in a Thanotology course in college. The title of the essay was “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain”. I can’t find a link to the full text of the essay, but it speaks about many things people don’t realize about the burial process.
Second in my decision is the fact that my husband works at a funeral home. The knowledge I’ve gained through his experiences has reinforced what I read about in the essay.
And on somewhat irrational topic, I’ve seen how embalming fluid can ruin a pair of slacks – no way in hell I want that shit in my body. Just burn me up, baby.
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### Author:  [@Reuben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reuben)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/5 "2002-12-22T17:52:41Z")
Natural burial for me, ie no headstone or anything that would be a waste of land, just stick me under an Oak tree (for preference) and forget about it.
But that’s only if I can’t get my #1 choice, which is…
I want to be one of those skeletons you get in science class! At my boarding school we had one (yes a real one, someone must have left themselves to science) and I’ve wanted to be one ever since.
And I like the thought of my bones being out in the sunlight, instead of underground being nibbled by moles and whatnot down in the darkness for the rest of time. Brrrr.
Also I’d be vaguely educational to children, and a useful prop in countless gottle of geer jokes.
But unlike the skeleton we had at school, I’d like some identification on mine so the kids can look me up should they want to. I always wondered who our skeleton had been.
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### Author:  [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/6 "2002-12-22T17:52:48Z")
I want to be stuffed and put on display.
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### Author:  [@fizgig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizgig)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/7 "2002-12-22T17:53:12Z")
“Freeze me solid and drive me into the ground like a fencepost…” -My old neighbor
I really don’t care. Cremation I guess. I definitely don’t want a casket, and I guess there’s some sort of taboo against digging a ditch and tossing the body in for worm food, so cremation it is.
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### Author:  [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/8 "2002-12-22T17:56:14Z")
Cremation is, I think, the way I want to be…um…disposed of, I guess. My family doesn’t tend to visit graves - we’re pretty much all of the opinion that our relative isn’t there in the ground, but within the memories we have, so there’s no need to look at a grave.
No disrespect intended, of course, to those Dopers who do visit the graves of loved ones.
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### Author:  [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/9 "2002-12-22T17:56:55Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by fizgig \*
> \*\*
> I really don’t care. Cremation I guess. I definitely don’t want a casket, and I guess there’s some sort of taboo against digging a ditch and tossing the body in for worm food, so cremation it is. \*\*
Actually, there are a few places in the country (sorry, don’t know exactly where) that are putting aside land for ‘natural’ burials in protected areas. The idea is that it allows for conservation of land and burial space at the same time, as the bodies would simply be buried in a hole, and would decompose and become fertilizer for the surrounding vegetation. I think it’s an interesting alternative.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/10 "2002-12-22T18:00:25Z")
Cremate me. Although grave yards are a great part of Americana, particularly at Halloween, I find the practice of keeping our dead in a box morbid in the extreme.
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### Author:  [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/11 "2002-12-22T18:04:57Z")
Burn
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/12 "2002-12-22T18:11:49Z")
Burn.
If I could be disposed of in any manner, I’d have my corpse launched into space to forever wander the galaxy.
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### Author:  [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/13 "2002-12-22T18:32:43Z")
Oh, I don’t know. Surprise me!
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### Author:  [@Max\_Harvey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Harvey)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/14 "2002-12-22T18:45:15Z")
Dump me in the Thames.
[sub]Somebody had to say it[/sub]
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### Author:  [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/15 "2002-12-22T18:47:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Max Harvey \*
> \*\*Dump me in the Thames.
>
> [sub]Somebody had to say it[/sub] \*\*
NYC version: concrete shoes, East River…
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### Author:  [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/16 "2002-12-22T19:28:59Z")
Donate usable organs (I don’t think anyone wants the unusable ones, right?), burn what’s left and put the ashes somewhere nice.
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### Author:  [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/17 "2002-12-22T19:38:55Z")
Bury. I really like the idea of “natural” burials, I 'll have to look into that.
Burn is out as an option because I had a Bad Experience in a crematorium as a younger person. I know it won’t make much difference to me after I’m dead, but the thought of cremation still skeeves me out.
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### Author:  [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/18 "2002-12-22T19:56:45Z")
For those who are interested, a site on [Natural Burials](http://www.livinglegacies.co.nz/natural%20burial%20parks.html)
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### Author:  [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/19 "2002-12-22T19:59:04Z")
Cremation, and make a nice urn to put me in. My sister and I are potters, and some of our potter friends have already made urns for themselves. My sister and I have _still_ not made that urn for my dad, dammit. Part of the problem is that we can’t get his ashes out of the original box Forest Lawn put him in, (it’s this weird metal thing) so we can’t transfer him to our own home-made urn. Yeesh.
I also like the idea of some of my ashes being made into a nice ash glaze (using it in a glaze formula) and being used on a pot. Maybe I could be glazed _on_ the urn, and also be _in_ the urn. That sounds cool.
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### Author:  [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burn-or-bury/144401/20 "2002-12-22T20:03:40Z")
Keep in mind, cremation does not automatically preclude funerals, memorials, or even burial. I went to a funeral recently where the deceased was cremated, put into a rather elaborate urn, and buried, with headstone.
My own plan was always to be burned and scattered, but I’m finding myself very attracted to buying myself a display case (dont’ know what else to call it) in the rotunda building at Hollywood Forever. It’s a sentimental thing, and they are becoming really wonderful in recent years, with poetry, special mementos, photos…tells a story about the person. Plus I’ve always loved that cemetary and I’m really thrilled that it’s been fixed up. It’s looking fab. (Anyone see “The Young and the Dead” on HBO?)
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