The 'Urban Death Project' Wants to Turn You Into Soil

If they would pay me for my deceased body, I'm okay with it, can always use some extra money.

originally posted by: Liquesence

originally posted by: TinfoilTP

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: TinfoilTP
This socialist project screams dehumanization.

Once you're dead nature has pretty effectively dehumanized you.

The dehumanizing is for the living. Once birth and death are effectively dehumanized by non religious policy, nothing in between matters, your slavery is complete.

Sooo, religion is freedom?

Religion is a morality based system . Something so lacking in this world today . Reference the original OP.
Dont just concentrate on religion but the ideals behind .Religion is practiced by billions of folks. And , yes , most relate religion to freedom .
Most religions around the world have burial rituals.

originally posted by: audubon
AFAICS the only difference between this scheme and regular burial is the speed at which you are reabsorbed by the environment. Or am I missing something?

(N.b., slightly tongue-in-cheek, but there is a serious point at the heart of it).

Was hoping to see this comment because now I don't have to type it. Or, err....

Meh, I'd rather by body was tossed into a thermal depolymerizer and changed into biodeisel

originally posted by: TinfoilTP
This socialist project screams dehumanization. Letting grandma ferment in the compost pile. They will send you straight to the shredder instead of having a retirement.

What the heck is socialistic about this?

I'm a grandma that has made clear to her family that I want to decompose naturally. But according to the laws currently in force in Kentucky, I cannot do that in my home state without the "assistance" of a licensed funeral director. Soooo---it's off to the Body Farm in Knoxville for me when the time comes. I get to naturally decompose and students get to study my bones for eternity or until they decide to dispose of them.

I realize that not all people want to go that way and that's all good. If you want your family to spend thousands of dollars just to put your body in the ground...that's fine with me. I have good friends who are funeral directors. If you want your loved ones to spend thousands of dollars to burn up your body using precious fossil fuels---that's fine with me too. My blessed mother-in-law was cremated and we scattered her in the ocean per her wishes. I don't visit graveyards except to help clean up our small family cemetery. Most of the folks in that graveyard were long dead when I was born but because it is a family tradition, I always help with the upkeep. It is to honor my ancestors. I don't visit my family graves. They are in my heart, not some hole in the ground. But I love roaming through old, really old cemeteries like the ones in Charleston, SC. They are great places to observe the changes through time that cultures undergo as regards mortuary rituals. James Deetz did an excellent little book on this titled In Small Things Forgotten.

At the same time, I'm an archaeologist. I've dug or handled literally thousands of humans. We've learned a lot from studying those bones. That's why I'm leaving mine for the students at the University of Tennessee to deal with. While my body might end up in Tennessee my spirit will always reside in Kentucky.

If someone wants to become compost in this manner---who am I to say that they shouldn't be granted that wish? It certainly is more kind to the earth than pumping a body full of toxic chemicals and planting them in the earth or using over a hundred cubic feet of natural gas to burn a body to ash.

a reply to: Gothmog

Religion is a morality based system

One can have morality without religion.

Dont just concentrate on religion but the ideals behind

I don't. That's why the ideals behind, which are largely good, have nothing to do with "religion." And what's also my point.

"Religion" often does hijack the ideals and principles (a form of induced slavery), see the post to which I originally replied.

a reply to: Liquesence

There is something primitive, something basic, something before any religion. . . we don't eat ourselves, we don't devour anything from ourselves.

It's ingrained into us.

It is instinctual. Something fundamental. Something basic.


This?

This is wrong.

Not for moral reasons or religious reasons.


It's something more atavistic.

a reply to: DBCowboy
Well here's one to ponder.
Have you never stopped to wonder how many farms have undiscovered burial sites from who knows when just beneath the reach of the tillers?

I have. Doesn't stop me from eating anything, either.

As the saying goes, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." We will return to from which we came, aided along or not. Considering how many humans have lived and died before the current 7 billion (107 billion estimated humans have existed) then odds are you've unknowingly ingested quite a bit of returned-to-the-soil formerly human material over your lifetime, in the form of veggies, fruits, grains, meats and animal-derived items (milks, cheese, eggs)

Hungry yet?

a reply to: Nyiah

So?

I agree that we are probably eating ourselves in some manner.

It does not negate the point that it has been culturally taboo since before we even had a culture.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: Nyiah

So?

I agree that we are probably eating ourselves in some manner.

It does not negate the point that it has been culturally taboo since before we even had a culture.

After a certain degradation point, we're not "us" anymore to feed the foods we eat. We're the individual components now. Like if we were made of legos and not molecules. Just because the legos in my kid's box were a dino yesterday doesn't mean they are today (they're a bear today) Same idea.

a reply to: Nyiah

Whatever you say.

*shrug*

Bon Appétit

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Omg your avatar!

That is so awesome, hahaha!

Right.

Allowing the body to return to nature and return what resources we can to the earth is socialist and bad.

Spending tens of thousands on a fake form of pretend immorality until Jesus comes back and makes us all magical zombies is capitalist and good.

It's so clear to me now.

a reply to: silo13

"Soylent Green is PEOPLE! We're eating PEOPLE! "...*Watch the movie

originally posted by: DBCowboy
I'm going to give you so much heart burn!

How is that any different than what you do now?

originally posted by: Gothmog

Most religions cultures around the world have burial rituals.

That would be more accurate.

originally posted by: muzzleflash
Omg your avatar!

That is so awesome, hahaha!

Another member made it for last year's Halloween avatar contest.

originally posted by: Nyiah
Considering how many humans have lived and died before the current 7 billion (107 billion estimated humans have existed)

In the 6,000 year history of the earth?!?! Not possible.

originally posted by: silo13
The 'Urban Death Project' Wants to Turn You Into Soil

While the "Urban Death Project" may sound like the title of Hollywood's latest horror film, it's something else entirely—though perhaps not less macabre.

It's a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has a novel idea when it comes to making burials greener: composting human remains. It calls its system "Recomposition" and says it "transforms bodies into soil so that we can grow new life after we die."

The devaluation of the humans is reaching a new low. Sure, it all sounds fine and good until you really start thinking about it.

All our dead bodies thrown together in a big blender mixed with animal carcasses, entrails and poop to be 'transformed' into fertilizer? Really? That's just perfectly wretched.

Sounds like a huge chance to take also. I don't know anything about how it all comes down but what if you have someone with let's say AIDS who just happens to be fertilizing under your feet. What germs - microbes - whatever would the fertilization process let loose into the air, ground, etc? Maybe someone here will know.

The Seattle Times notes the project has run one experiment thus far involving wood chips and a 78-year-old woman's remains.

It's not approved but they did it anyway? I'd like to know how all that came about.

What I do know is Washington State University is the first of it's kind to build one of these processing plants. Right now they're making fertilizer out of dead animals, manure, entrails, etc. They say they're going to keep humans separate during the testing phase - but by that statement alone? You know we'll all be smooshed in with Fido and pig guts and poo sooner than later.

Nope, no green death for me.

Just one more step towards Soylent Green in my opinion.

Edit to Add: Before you run right over there to allow your body to be made into shat? The page staes:

Due to overwhelming interest, we are not currently enrolling participants in the pilot program at this time.

Why doesn't that surprise me. I mean, it's Seattle.

peace

I think it's a great idea, back to the circle of life thing, free up space, don't see the problem here.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: Gothmog

Most religions cultures around the world have burial rituals.

That would be more accurate.

religions and cultures if you want to be absolutely correct