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From: bill@hpfcms.UUCP (bill)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Liferafts
Message-ID: <45200005@hpfcms.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 12-May-85 16:55:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: hpfcms.45200005
Posted: Sun May 12 16:55:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 12-May-85 00:45:33 EDT
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Organization: Hewlett-Packard - Fort Collins, CO
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Nf-ID: #R:decwrl:-171800:hpfcms:45200005:000:1391
Nf-From: hpfcms!bill    May  1 12:55:00 1985

>I would wait until someone died of natural means. I certainly
>wouldn't throw a dead body overboard.

This is a viable solution.

>Which reminds me . . . Isn't it silly how we seal dead bodies
>before we bury them? It's not like there's much use for it beyond
>archaic superstition. Cremation is even more ridiculous.


I think it's silly, also, to preserve a dead body, put it in $3000 worth
of hardwood, and erect a large monument.  However, it's probably done for
the sake of the surviving loved ones (would you like to see your father's
body thrown into a heap outside of town?  -  sorry).  These days its
probably got nothing to do with "archaic superstition" (which I assume refers
to beliefs that the soul still needs the body at some time, etc.), but
tradition.

However, I differ from you in that cremation seems like a good idea to me.
It's cheap, doesn't take up land, and doesn't cause people to talk to
graves as if they were people.  I think it helps us to remember that the
actual person is somewhere else now, not physical anymore (I firmly believe
there's more to a person than just a body).

>I think I'd rather be buried in a garden or something.

Why would you want to be buried in a garden, anyhow?  You won't be around
to know or care!  It seems just as silly to me to want to be buried in a
garden as it is to seal a body and all that!

Bill Gates      hpfcla!bill-g