A few years ago, while on a course, the group we comprised was assigned a project. We had to decide on it ourselves and my suggestion that we explore an alternative to cremation was accepted.
And so we set out doing the research, finding a suitable site for planting memorial shrubs, calculating the costs and making the argument as to why it would be a better option than cremation or burial.
We argued for Promession as a viable alternative. We were not the first to come up with it and were merely drawing on work in the field so there is no claim to originality. We passed the course, which indicates that at least we succeeded in making a plausible case.
For us, it was a learning exercise and not a serious business proposal. We merely had to show that we had worked out the business plan rather than act on it. Today, given the surge in global warming and climate change, the idea of alternatives to burial and cremation has gained more traction. Promession, which involves cryogenically freezing the remains, has never come to fruition. With it being reported that “cremation relies on fossil fuels, and emits millions of tons of carbon dioxide each year, while the burial of embalmed bodies can cause chemicals to seep into the earth. ", something more environmentally friendly seems worth looking at.
For us, it was a learning exercise and not a serious business proposal. We merely had to show that we had worked out the business plan rather than act on it. Today, given the surge in global warming and climate change, the idea of alternatives to burial and cremation has gained more traction. Promession, which involves cryogenically freezing the remains, has never come to fruition. With it being reported that “cremation relies on fossil fuels, and emits millions of tons of carbon dioxide each year, while the burial of embalmed bodies can cause chemicals to seep into the earth. ", something more environmentally friendly seems worth looking at.
During the week I came across a piece where a proposal for a green alternative was being laid out. The State of California is considering legalising human composting. “a process in which the body breaks down into soil over the course of about 30 days.” Washington State has already legislated and Colorado is planning to follow suit with one proviso being that the remains will not be composted in crop-growing fields that will ultimately make their way to the dinner table.
Unembalmed remains are processed and turned into soil, aka human composting. The body is broken down with organic materials like wood chips and/or straw for several weeks inside of an enclosure until it becomes soil.
The process is said to save a ton of CO2 per person, making it more environmentally friendly than either burial or cremation.
Already persuaded of the idea, I welcomed the development, regarding it as both progressive and practical. However, the opposition as ever to progress is being fronted by the religious, this time in the form of the California Catholic Conference.
We believe that the ‘transformation’ of the remains would create an emotional distance rather than a reverence for them ... Even with cremated remains, they directed that they remain in a communal place befitting of the dignity inherent in the human body and its connection to the immortal soul.
This is in line with Vatican thinking. In 2016 the Congregation For The Doctrine Of The Faith - not known for its advocacy of anything useful - released guidelines for the disposal of human remains.
Following the most ancient Christian tradition, the Church insistently recommends that the bodies of the deceased be buried in cemeteries or other sacred places ... In order that every appearance of pantheism, naturalism or nihilism be avoided, it is not permitted to scatter the ashes of the faithful departed in the air, on land, at sea or in some other way, nor may they be preserved in mementos, pieces of jewelry or other objects. These courses of action cannot be legitimized by an appeal to the sanitary, social, or economic motives that may have occasioned the choice of cremation ... When the deceased notoriously has requested cremation and the scattering of their ashes for reasons contrary to the Christian faith, a Christian funeral must be denied to that person according to the norms of the law.
The soul, like the sinner, is an exclusively religious concept and of absolutely no value to the rest of us. The existence of such a thing as a soul has absolutely no basis in science. Souls like their alter ego, ghosts, have been ruled out by Professor Brian Cox - had they existed CERN's Large Hadron Collider would have detected them by now. Not one single bit of evidence for juju the theologians just make up, yet here they are spouting their opposition to measures that have a clear beneficial impact for humankind.
How about turning bishops into fertilizer? No complex conversion process required. The end product would come ready made.
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