Cremation
by Aart Jurriaanse
Throughout the ages the many races, each with its own customs,
traditions and mystical and religious backgrounds, have devised
numerous methods for disposing of discarded physical vehicles. These
have varied from setting out the corpses to be devoured by wild
animals, such as hyenas, crocodiles, tigers and vultures; burial, with
the body in various postures, in graves, caves, tombs, catacombs,
sepulchres and pyramids; burning on funeral pyres or other forms of
cremation; and finally embalming to preserve the corpse against
decomposition.
Several of these methods are still practised, but burial in Mother
Earth is probably still the most commonly used method. This is most
unhygienic because so many deaths are caused by infectious diseases,
and in burying these corpses the soil becomes contaminated by the
causal germs and viruses, which may remain contagious for many years.
Thus the burial of millions of the infected corpses has contaminated
large parts of the Earth's surface.
By far the most effective, hygienic, and also the 'neatest' way of
disposing of these physical remains is by cremation. The exact
technique applied, and whether open fires or electrical equipment is
used, is immaterial. What is
important is that cremation is increasingly gaining ground over other
practices, and this may in future at least contribute towards
purifying the soil, and reducing sources of infection.
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The above text was last posted June 2002.
"...The universal adoption of cremation as the only hygienic
method of restoration to the earth of the body after death will speed
this process [of eradicating disease]. For countless ages, through
burial, diseases of the physical body have been absorbed into the
earth to be reabsorbed in vegetable and animal tissue. This has
occurred for so long that the earth itself is contaminated." B.C.
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They say it's best to wait 3 days before cremating. It may be a nice
topic to bring up at Thankgiving when chatting with the old folks!
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P.s. about 15% of those who die stick around the Earth for 5 to 500
years because their loved ones are terribly attached to them, or
because they're very attached to their loved ones (or both) and some
don't realise that they've died.