Why Do Spend Money on Coffins?

Question

I mean what is the point of paying thousands of dollars on for caskets that are going to be put in the ground. What is the point? Some spend all that money on casket and the casket insurance. Why? I mean isn’t just easier and more efficient to burn the body to ashes and save money and space and nature.

And then sometimes Funeral Directors don’t even do what they say. And how are you to know if they did do something are not?

Answer 1

we should burn ALL corpses

Answer 2

Its a money making business. You don't burn the body unless the person wants to be cremated.

The disposing of the ash, to some activist out there would say they are populating our air. That you might breathe in Tom, Dick, or Harry; Judy, Julia, or Lisa.

Answer 3

We find it most difficult to reconcile our felt sense of ongoing presence and identity with the fact of our inevitable deaths. Funerary traditions permit us to pretend to have some personal continuity beyond our deaths. This is a powerful, if false, comfort. For thousands of years many cultures have perpetuated a superstitious notion that has the following elements and pattern:
- Every person has an essential nature
- That essential nature is (a) individually unique and (b) eternal
- One's physical body is inseparable from one's essential nature
- Therefore, allowing the body to decay or become dismembered means that the person's essence has no means to manifest itself and exists in an unpleasant, disconnected, disoriented, or even horrifying condition—perhaps forever

I suspect that something like this confused logic drives the fears that fuel many cultural myths and institutions, as well as many funerary practices. I don't intend to sound condescending. It is understandable that death, as an obvious primary transition that affects every living thing, captured the attention of humans throughout time. Even elephants appear to ponder the meaning of death. Encountering the death of one we knew in life is a shocking discontinuity that threatens us. Modern embalming and other attempts to preserve and enshrine human remains are no more enlightened than the practices of ancient Egyptians or other mummification cultures.

It is necessary, however, to dispose of human and animal remains in ways that protect the living from disease and other undesirable outcomes. Caskets, crypts, and other devices for isolating decaying remains from the living have served this purpose while also helping perpetuate the notion of the dead continuing to exist in some way. No means of disposal is without environmental or financial impact. Cremation produces poisonous byproducts that can spread through the air and get into water sources. Pollutants from buried human remains can also get into water sources. If we wish to honor the living (of today and tomorrow), we will elevate environmental concerns above metaphysical speculations and seek the least environmentally damaging methods for disposing of human and animal remains.

As for the funeral industry, it is a business first and its positions will be driven primarily by profit motives. No matter how little a disposal method may actually cost, the industry will seek ways to make it as expensive as laws will permit. Any costs incurred in meeting environmental requirements will be vigorously opposed and, once mandated by law, will be passed on to the grieving survivors.

Answer 4

There's a saying, "Funerals are for the living."

Funeral Directors of any kind don't always do what they say they're going to do - especially behind the scene. How do you know the ashes you're getting are your loved-one's ashes? It's a gamble either way.

I don't see the point in having a $25,000 funeral, either. My husband and I have planned to be cremated. At the time we're both deceased, we'll be mixed together and buried. Of course, we'll want our loved ones to have a simple memorial.

Answer 5

the REALLY stupid thing is that they put you in a coffin (as expensive as you can afford, or they make you feel like the cheapest, most despicable person who ever lived) before CREMATION. what a complete waste!

also, i would like to be cremated, for LOADS of reasons, but the environment isnt one of them, burning bodies and coffins etc releases co2, and if you believe in global warming, thats bad, also, so many ashes have been scattered in 'areas of outstanding beauty' in england that its damaging the chemical balance of the soil in these places, and certain plants wont grow which affects the whole eco-system. burying bodies is actuly excellent for the soil, its like the ultimate compost heap, the soil that bodies decomposed in is even better than manure.

i actuly don't give a sh!t about the grass at stonehenge, or the environment for that matter, but i thought you'd like to know!

Answer 6

funerals are for the living. They want to think that the big beautiful casket is somehow going to be appreciated by the dead person. My grandma says to just cremate her and put her in a mayonaise jar between the jars of nuts and bolts in my grandpa's toolshed so she can keep an eye on him.

Answer 7

I too believe that the funeral is for the living. I believe that when you are buried somewhere that it gives your family a place to visit and helps them mourn. If you think about it it is hard for them to put flowers on your grave if they have scattered your remains out into the ocean.

Answer 8

I'm saving the box that my refrigerator came in.

Its just a market scam, just like expensive weddings and expensive baby items...the companies that make these items are taking advantage of the extreme emotions that are associated with death/wedding/birth and make one feel as if by not spending thousands of dollars one is not showing that one truly cares.

Answer 9

To cremate according to the word of God is only used on unrighteous people who did not obey God's word. If God wanted us to be cremated, He would have had His son Jesus cremated, but instead Jesus was buried in a tomb, and praise the Lord was rasied again!

Answer 10

MARKETING!