Atheists, according to your beliefs, why have a funeral, isnt there a better scientific use for your remains?

Question

Dosa----good answer-----you are right, hence my meditation on donating my body to science. And I would not want people to mourn.

Answer 1

For those who think humans are just one more animal species, I suggest the best use of their bodies is - SOYLENT GREEN

Answer 2

The two concepts aren't mutually exclusive. One can donate the body to science or for organ donation and still have a funeral or memorial service to celebrate the persons life. It is a means of closure for family and friends to remember the life and what the person meant to them. Don't think it does the dead person a lot of good....maybe before death, knowing loved ones will remember them in this way.

Answer 3

I'm an organ donor; whatever's useful to someone else, they can have. The rest I'm having cremated and thrown into Lake Michigan on a sunny August day.

And I want a funeral and a party. The perfect funeral, in my mind, is a party where you have to say, "It's a shame he's dead, because he would have had a blast here today."

Answer 4

Burial in a coffin and cremation both prolong the time it takes for your body to decompose. Personally, I'd like to be buried in a cardboard box under a sapling tree so my nutrients can help it grow. Gravestones are so melancholy, what's nicer than a great big tree for visiting? And a funeral seems like a waste of time and money, plus all it does is make people sad. I'm not self centered enough to want a bunch of people crying over me, I'd rather they remember me but stay happy. I'd like to die with minimal ceremony - and maximum carbon neutrality

someeone alreay asked this: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnRNnkaWyqZV3nfknlJ.Phrsy6IX?qid=20070626011748AAsuR8R&show=7#profile-info-rTQlX648aa

Answer 5

There might be but what does that have to do with atheism? There's no atheist law, written or otherwise, that says we must do everything in the name of science, evolution or anything like that.

While I haven't given much thought on the matter, I'd prefer to be burnt. I haven't decided on donating body parts ~ I guess it would depend how long I live.

Answer 6

I carry a donor card stating that any part of me that can be put to good use after I've died they're more that welcome to. The rest will be cremated.

I doubt that I'm likely to be much use on a scientific level once the transplant guys have finished although I'm more than happy for Med students to learn their anatomy on whatever is left over. It'll make a nice change to be experimented on by other students rather me experimenting on myself as was often required when I was studying Physiology.

Answer 7

Funerals aren't always about religion. many time funerals are for family and friends to say there goodbyes. and just because someones an Atheist doesn't mean they don't have a preference as to how there remains are disposed of.

Answer 8

yes like saving lives by donating organs perhaps? i am an organ donar, and if im lucky parts of my body will save aproximately 10 people when i die. Or at the very least improve greatly their quality in life.

isnt that a grand gift you can give to people?

what ever remains is to be cremated. disposing of waste and returning to the natural cycle.

Answer 9

I am donating all usable parts of my body including skin to be transplanted.. Whats left will be in no shape to use for scientific purposes so it is to be disposed of in the manner in which my family chooses.. I have already payed for burial in a casket as well as cremation my family will get a refund for whichever method they do not use..

Answer 10

Right funerals are a wast of time. If they can use any part of me cut it out then just hang the rest of me in a tree for the birds to enjoy.
Kisses Betty B.

Answer 11

My funeral will be about total vanity and humor.

Half my guests will dress up as devils, the other half angels. They will have a dance-off to compete for my soul, and then all break out into Michael Jackson's "Thriller".

lol