# Where Will You Spend Eternity? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 26, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897 "2010-03-26T16:44:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![breaking-reality](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@breaking-reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaking-reality)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/21 "2010-03-26T18:03:01Z")
Cremated. I’m an organ donor, so whatever they can take from me before hand, go for it. I don’t really care what happens to my body, I just rather not take up the space in a coffin in the ground. Not my style. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/22 "2010-03-26T18:06:48Z")
Goodness, I don’t care. Organ donation is OK, but I plan to be 95, so kind of moot. Otherwise, I want one of those muslin sheet/cardboard box deals where they bury you in the woods instead of a cemetery with a steel box and concrete bunker. ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/23 "2010-03-26T18:18:43Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > My mom had hysterics upon finding out that I might be a tissue donor. Mine too, but it was because she believes that the hospital won’t try very hard to save my life. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/24 "2010-03-26T19:05:42Z")
I don’t understand, is that a Methodist thing? No mainstream Christian denomination I know of believes that your original physical body is required for the Resurrection on the Last Day. I mean, Charles Wesley’s body himself is probably not in very good shape by now. As far as myself, I don’t really care what happens to me other than I’d like to be an organ donor. Cremation or burial are both acceptable. I think my wife/family would be upset if I gave my body over for medical use, though. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/25 "2010-03-26T19:18:23Z")
Hopefully, anything that can will be donated. Beyond that, I don’t give a shit. Funerals and remains are for the living, not the dead. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/26 "2010-03-26T19:46:12Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > I don’t understand, is that a Methodist thing? No mainstream Christian denomination I know of believes that your original physical body is required for the Resurrection on the Last Day. I mean, Charles Wesley’s body himself is probably not in very good shape by now. > > As far as myself, I don’t really care what happens to me other than I’d like to be an organ donor. Cremation or burial are both acceptable. I think my wife/family would be upset if I gave my body over for medical use, though. I have heard ministers of the Church of God in Christ (an overwhelmingly black Pentecostal denomination based in Memphis) propound that cremation is wrong because it interferes with the resurrection. They’re not a _mainline_ denomination, but they’re certainly _mainstream_. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/27 "2010-03-26T19:51:14Z")
My family and partner know that I want to be harvested for everything I’ve got that anyone can use, for transplant, treatment or research, and the hopefully minimal remains are to be buried in a biodegradable wrapping somewhere nice. They get to choose where; I’ll be dead and won’t care where I am, but they might want to visit or something. They should do whatever’s most convenient for them. But if they don’t do the donating part, I \*\*will \*\*come back and haunt them. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/28 "2010-03-26T20:55:03Z")
You folks can get burned, chopped up, or rot away…I’m coming out of this alive! Of course, I’m hoping to be revived before the liquid nitrogen runs out, but I fully expect to be revived, sometime around AD 2300!🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/29 "2010-03-26T21:02:48Z")
My first choice would be to have my corpse placed in a casket, with a window in it, like Spock’s, and shot into space in a random direction. Second choice would be to have my corpse set adrift on a blazing wooden boat, floating down the bayou. Failing either of those, I will be interred in the family plot near my ancestral home, overlooking a bayou. It’s nice there. Quiet. Deep in the rural South. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/30 "2010-03-26T21:05:42Z")
Organ donor/medical science. Anything leftover can be given to necrophiles or filled with candy and beaten like a pinata. I don’t care, I’m dead. ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/31 "2010-03-26T23:53:01Z")
I’d like to be burned on top of an enormous pyre while my friends and relatives get drunk as hell and talk about what an [del]asshole[/del] awesome guy I was. I don’t think that quite passes legal muster though so just regular cremation will suffice unless I can convince somebody to kidnap my corpse. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/32 "2010-03-27T00:10:32Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > I want my organs donated and my body cremated. I’m ambivalent about my corpse going to medical science I’m signed up as an organ donor too, so I thought it would be a bit of a waste asking for my corpse to be donated for medical science, what with all the bits missing. Randi wants his ashes blown in Yuri Geller’s face, I had a similar idea years back. My corpse would be frozen into a vaguely aerodymanic shape and then dropped from altitude onto someone I disliked who had managed to outlive me. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/33 "2010-03-27T01:05:36Z")
Medical science here. Might as well be useful. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/34 "2010-03-27T01:08:17Z")
Both SO and I want to be cremated. The idea of becoming mulch for other plant/organisms to feed upon seems only fair as we have been feeding off them. Plus, the idea of being buried is kind of creepy - thinking that with my luck, they would find my bones in 40 million years and mention I should have flossed more regularly - nah, don’t wanna be some museum exhibit. And regarding organ donations - at our age, you would have to be really, really desperate to need them, and most of them ain’t in the best shape to begin with, so I have the sneaking suspicion they would take one look and say, “expired”. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/35 "2010-03-27T01:19:57Z")
I really don’t want anyone making money off my dead body, so even though I’m a registered organ donor \, I would rather just die in such a way that the body goes back to nature on it’s own. Food for sharks, wolves, crows, whatever. May my hair line the nests of a hundred owls, and my bones crunch twixt the teeth of a dozen wolves 😃 ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/36 "2010-03-27T01:37:59Z")
I want to be cremated…but not in a box somewhere. I want to be set on fire in a bon fire sort of thing. And eaten. My liver spread on crackers. It’s pretty close to foi gras right now. And my body danced around and marshmallows toasted. You’r all invited. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/37 "2010-03-27T03:02:45Z")
I will be buried. BTW, for an interesting story on a society where cremation is required read Ray Bradbury’s “Pillar of Fire”. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/38 "2010-03-27T03:22:12Z")
Organ donation. But for purely selfish reasons. I like the idea that dozens of complete strangers will essentially be devoting their entire bodies just to keep parts of me alive. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/39 "2010-03-27T03:44:52Z")
I chose “buried” but really, technically, entombed in a vault in the mausoleum with the rest of my family. I might change my mind and be cremated and have my ashes placed there. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897/40 "2010-03-27T03:49:18Z")
If there were some way for me to pass away on the edge of a canyon in Utah someplace and just let nature take it’s course, I could leave this world fully content. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-you-spend-eternity/533897.md?page=3)