religion

2.Cremating (burning) the dead body leads to pollution of the atmosphere, which is detrimental to health and harmful for the environment. There is no such pollution caused by burying a dead body.
To cremate a dead body several trees have to be chopped, which reduces the greenery and harms the environment and the ecology. When dead bodies are buried, besides the trees being saved, the surrounding land becomes fertile and it improves the environment.

This is related to Debate Mansion Section... so, topic moved.

I am not sure of the purpose of this post . Are you advising us for a practise you believe in or do you want to have a honest to god debate .

Like cremation has its disadvantages so does burial .

1) Cremation costs just a fraction of burial . In this day and age when a plot of land has become expensive and people would rather see it being used for more usefull purposes for the living . Cremation becomes a much cheaper option for the poor.

2) A cemetary will always require looking after .These days when people don't have respect for the living , how much can they respect and honor the dead .You will have to have a caretaker that not just watches out for Vandals but also keeps the cemetry clean to honor the dead.While with cremation you will never have to worry about the need to protect the dead .

3) Finally , Economy and Ecology aside we humans need our traditions . In Hinduism cremation is the only way to acheive peace after death .The fire is meant to purify the soul !!

P.S- You may have heard of crematorioums . Therefore the old method of creating a pyre with wood is in decline in most Cities of India !


Edited by Aparna_BD - 08 February 2006 at 1:10pm

honestly speaking,
This is really not the topic for debate.
IT is what we beleive in religion wise.
something that we do it at the end of our lives........
and Deepal4u and aparna explained about the reasons.similerly there are reasons for burial too.

1.Burial is traditional within your family, religious group, or geographical area


2.You do not like the idea of the body being "burned"
You prefer to have the body slowly return to the elements

3.You want to erect a monument on the grave

Perhaps you want to visit the grave in the days to come

it depends on yr religion or tradition, of course i would prefer burial cos i hate fire, but it all depends on ppl's beliefs, so i hv nothing more to say

it depends on your religon. Hindus do cremate the bodies

I prefer the Dakhma ritual - where a dead body is placed on an isolated well for vultures to devour.

advantages:

1) feeds another living being
2) no pollution AT ALL
3) no land used up either

anyway, it all depends on one's religion as everyone else said. each ritual has good and bad.

Even this has its problems . In Mumbai where the closest Parsi site for this ritual is near the main street where people live . People who have house there have reported they often have piece of a flesh , one eye , a finger often gets dropped by the vulture in their balcony !!

So that has its problems too . But ultimately custom is custom !!