What are the pros and cons of cremation as opposed to a regular burial?

Question

Several of you mentioned- "aside from religious reasons" . Can you please tell me the different religious reasons?

Answer 1

First off....I used to be a counselor for a funeral home. If you have lost someone, I am sorry.

The only major difference (besides religious beliefs) is in the cost. Cremation can be less expensive. Don't get me wrong--one can have an inexpensive burial/funeral, but you'd have to skimp in some things....coffin, length of services, plot, marker....then again, creamation doesn't require the opening/closing fee (cemetery), or the casket, or even the stone sometimes.

again I am sorry for your loss.

You can still have a regular funeral service, you just have to rent the casket (they are very reasonable, and most do that). It all comes down to preference really. You can get both to be about even in cost. Its just what your willing to sacrifice on.

Answer 2

If you have ever seen an exhumation of a grave, you will never agree before your death to being buried. During the investigation into a suspected murder inquiry, the lady involved having been buried for three months during the winter months, we got an order to exhume the body. On a cold winters day, the grave was dug up and the coffin removed. At the mortuary when the lid was taken off the coffin............................. I leave the rest to your imagination.. There and then I made up my mind, and informed my family that I am NEVER to be buried. I want to be cremated and my ashes scattered back home in Ireland. Truly, use your worst imagination of what I saw, multiply that by one hundred and you are still not close to the sight.......................

Answer 3

My mother and father are dead. Their corpses are lying in metal boxes six feet below the ground. They are dead and forgotten by general society. Certain people like me remember them but for how long? After a generation or two will my grave be remembered? Why? For what purpose?

Graves and coffins and cemetery plots are devices sold to consumers. The government regulates your corpse stating you have to have your blood removed and a preservative added. Funerals are very expensive. Graves take up space. Land that could be used to house or feed other living humans.

Have you ever met an employee of a funeral home that did not look like a creepy ghoul from some Vincent Price movie or a Charles Dickens literary work? The whole affair is so morbid and creepy.

I have found funerals to be NOT about the corpse but rather some bogus, selfish, vain, carnival-like, "dog and pony" side-show about all the sniveling, sobbing, alleged family members.

They go on and on and on about how they were "the only one" that loved you. The truth is they were out in Texas somewhere getting drunk, running after women and bad mouthing you. After you are dead they put on this big show.

Then there is the religious official doing his side show act complete with nonsense mumbo-jumbo. I mean really, he could care less. That is how he makes his living.

Ever since the days of Neanderthal bodies have been placed in the ground with personal possessions. ** If you think that ring on grandma's hand is going to be there later you might want to think again. ** Neanderthal saw sleep as a kind of mini death and death as a kind of major sleep. This is how the myth of the after-life was fostered in the primitive mind.

If you dream when you sleep there MUST be a big dream out there when you die.

There are no vampires or zombies unfortunately. You are not coming back. So why take up space and provide trinkets for future grave robbers? Do you really think the cemetery you are in is going to be in business 200 years from now? Don't be crazy.

I want to be remembered. I want to be put in a box in the ground. That is crazy. No one remembers me now. That is just vain behavior. Say like I pass by Bach's grave and say, "I remember you. I like your music." How does that profit Bach? He is still dead.

Visit any typical graveyard or cemetary for fun. Walk and walk and walk for hours looking at the names. Be honest. Do you really KNOW any of these people? Well?

That is going to happen to you and me as well. Someone will look at my grave 50 years from now and say, "Who the hell is that?"

Hindus and the ancient Romans cremated their dead. Some primitive cultures consumed part of the ashes of the dead and kept the rest in a communal tribal pot.

It does not matter what happens to your body after you die.

HOWEVER, I would tend to think cremation to be better.

Answer 4

My dad was cremated, and it was the best decision we ever made. Coffins are expensive and that cost will fall to surviving family members. Additionally, plots can often cost more for a coffin versus an urn. It was less painful for me, because we didn't have to pic out clothes, or pay for expensive make-up (which makes them look ridiculous). We took my Dad's ashes, rented a boat and spread them at sea. It was beautiful, and way better then any graveyard. We do, however, have a headstone in a graveyard for our comfort.

Answer 5

Pros...takes up less space; costs less; no need for an open-casket funeral

Cons...ask the families of those people that thought they were having their family members cremated in Georgia (or was it Alabama?) a couple years ago.

Answer 6

Cremation=much cheaper, and even though you are dead, you don't have to worry about bugs crawling through your body...plus your family can decide where to spread your ashes, or keep them in an urn with them.

Burial=very expensive now days with the costs of funeral homes, coffins, etc. Also the cost of having your gravesite maintained wherever you are buried.

Answer 7

Pros Cheaper, quicker, less perpetual cost and most important the wishes of the deceased.

Cons It shortens the grieving process. Not seeing the body makes the death seem unreal like they have just moved rather than died. And, again, the wishes of the deceased.

Answer 8

Pro: Cheaper, and sometimes what some people wish for (like me, i would hate to be placed in the cold, wet ground)
Con: No where to go talk to your loved ones.

Answer 9

Cremation is cheaper and better for the environment.

Some religions do not allow cremation.

Answer 10

Cremation: less expensive, and you take up less space in a cemetery (or are on someone's mantel).

Burial: others get to see the body (if you want), others get to carry it.