Cannibalism

[rikulover2323]

Well we could. If we took only a percent of the dead right now and turned them into some kind of dish. We could feed more than half the world. And it is the only source of food that will NEVER run out.

[Mike]

(Just to explain beforehand...I really don't mean to sound smug or anything. But about my background, I took several medical, as well as ethics courses in university wherein we dealt with the Nuremburg Trials extensively. I do think that article is worth a glancing over, I apologize if I said it in an impolite way)

EDIT: But religiously, when does the Christian religion believe death is? (As I was explaining...the mechanics of death we are not meant to understand).

From what I've understood of the whole situation, it's that the Nazis were, surprise surprise, torturing those they captured. Unfortunately, this means most of their medical breakthroughs were in the art of torture (as was the one I mentioned)...they were trying to develop weapons of war (biological in nature, in this case)...which is knowledge we can do without. Did you have a specific breakthrough in mind? None come to my mind.


However...in regards to burial, we actually have ample burial space. Many environmentalists (etc.) are complaining about issues like this that really don't make a lot of sense (in my opinion). The human body decomposes, wood decomposes, silk decomposes...everything decomposes. I guess arguably, the metal handles/hinges on a casket don't decompose (for a long time), but there's no reason they can't be made out of wood, or something else.

So in like 200 years, everyone who's buried this year will inevitably disappear ("You are dust and to dust you shall return")...leaving room for more burials.

And as for starving people...actually, the starving people I can't argue with. But their situation is so bad, that they already resort to cannibalism for survival in places such as Africa.

[Betty Boop]

Originally Posted by Mike

Maybe you meant one of the first posts in this thread. Betty_Boop was saying that some african (perhaps? I'm not sure) tribes have religious ceremonies involving cannibalism...but they don't practice it on a regular basis.

The Yanomani people live in Brazil. They are threatened by mining, farmers,etc. but that is for another topic. They engage in cannibalism of the dead. This is documented by anthropologists that studied them. The work of Napoleon Chagnon is a good start.
They also never mention a person after they die.

[rikulover2323]

(I myself am sorry for over reacting and yelling.) The problem with the burial situation is that people are starting to move toward materials that are not decomposing as fast as we first though they would. And I don't think that people are going to start reusing graveyards. They may, they may not. I will never know. I think that what should happen is we need to come up with a program. One like the organ donor program. Where someone can chose to have their dead body sent to a third world country as food. I am not making this a joke. I am very serious about this.

[Mike]

Ah.

I was never an anthro buff S: so to me, Brazil = Africa. Haha.

^^Why people? Why not dead cattle? Lot more useful meat from a cow than a human anyway. Disease is probably a big factor.

[Desert Warrior]

Originally Posted by Mike

EDIT: But religiously, when does the Christian religion believe death is? (As I was explaining...the mechanics of death we are not meant to understand).

Well, Catholics believe that actuall death is when you go to Hell. If you go to Heaven, you are alive again.

[rikulover2323]

Yes that is true. In my religion , Christianity, it is said. "die once, born twice." Meaning when we die and go to heaven we are born again.

[Mike]

But don't take the words literally. I mean, when is the exact moment we leave this 'vessel' and depart? (Which I will be refering to herein as "Death")

I know in Catholicism, these sorts of decisions are deliberately left to the medical professionals (according to the Pope). However, there is nothing divine about the medical profession, it is a 'trial and error' sort of field. In other words, God didn't leave us any clues (according to Catholics) regarding when a person has officially 'died.'

I don't think any Christian religions are any different as they use the same religious text (or rather, depending on the denomination, several versions of the same text) as Catholics.

EDIT: And in case we're forgetting why I'm getting into this, it's because since we don't know, we err on the side of caution. (That's how most ethics are, actually. Ethics are deliberately conservative rules)

[Ramayana]

In one Christian religion I read about, they believe the sould and body reunite at Resurrection. That would be hard if the body is in someones belly!!

[Mike]

^^Yes, that's actually the same reason some religions oppose cremation, and organ donation.

But then it begs the question, if the body is decomposed, wouldn't it be a similar problem? What if they were buried in a cemetery where say, an atomic detonation took place 20 years after they died, completely destroying their remains? They couldn't possibly be held responsible for something like that, right? Or what if someone is an amputee? Would they be resurrected with missing limbs?

(Personally, I consider that idea to be a literal interpretation of an abstract idea; "The resurrection of the body and life everlasting" is something Christians believe in (according to the Apostles Creed) and actually I think Islam, Judaism believe the same thing (each for a different reason). But I think of this as more figurative, like we'll be given a new, perfect body...not literally the resurrection of our old, imperfect bodies).