Posted by Baron Greenback [12.255.181.7 - 12-255-181-7.client.attbi.com] on 25 July 2002 at 12.58.39 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: Life After Death? posted by Stoner on 24 July 2002 at 17.50.03 ZuluTime:

Life after death is actually a startling reality. When a person dies, billions of bacteria which feed on dead cells can overtake a body. Flies and bluebottles can also add to the writhing mess. Gasses from tissues being digested can actually cause an unembalmed person to sit up, and more rarely, stand, due to pressures involved. Lactic acid, the causative factor of rigor mortis, helps a little, but not enough to prevent all the disease causing organisms from infesting, devouring, and spreading from your body. This life, which cannot begin untill a person dies, can pollute rivers and surrounding air, and fill them with homogenous and deadly diseases.

As far as religions go, there are precious few that deal well with this horrific fact. Some cultures, in which disease is extremely prevalant, actually exhume their dead once a year. There are two superior religious practices regarding life after death, however. One is cremation, which is basically sanitary, though not absolutely so, and extremely space efficient. The other is mummification, which is absolutely sanitary when done properly, and less space efficient.

I'm a supporter of mummification myself. Not only does it make things easy for future anthropologists (and archeologists, for that matter, if you can get some of your belongings into a good mausoleum), but there is an art and curiousity to it that well transcends your death. It encourages people to take a look at your life, and to discover as much as they can about you. It can be noted that, especially where art is concerned, many of our greatest masterpieces were only discovered or popularized after our deaths. A masterfully crafted tomb, with an excellently preserved mummy, can help bring about that prestige. For more information, I reccomend viewing this website.