Why Respect the Dead?

[Blind_Didymus]

The other day I commented on an article on FB about a graveyard being vandalised saying that our society needs to be retaught to respect the dead. Someone else asked why, saying that respect for the dead does nothing to benefit society. As this person is an atheist, explanations about how the dead will be resurrection don’t get very far.

How would you respond to this person?

Thank you for your thoughtful answers in advance

 

[Bookcat]

Human persons are to be respected as persons.

Their bodies too are to be respected. Bodies of persons.

Does anyone want the body of their mother to be disrespected?

Dug up and thrown out?

No.

Even Atheists do not want their loved ones body dug up and mistreated.

 

[Bookcat]

Of course as Christians we have even higher reasons to add.

2300 The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy; it honors the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit.

scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2a5.htm#2300

 

[Wesrock]

Not sure it’ll work, and it may depend on his politics, but the first secular examppe that comes to mind is respect given to a nation’s flag. Obviously burning a flag doesn’t hurt America, but it does represent attitudes towards ehat it represents, and people who see disrespect towards a flag will interpret it, perhaps quite rightly, to disrespect towards their values and identity.

Respect for the dead is a little different, but loved ones honor the memory of the person they knew by visiting and tending the grave. A vandilized grave sight can obviously interfere upset those who wish to pay their respects and loved that person. If not to pass it on dorevtly to the dead person, respect for the dead serves towards being respect for those still living who wish to memorialize, for themselves anyway, that person who is no longer here.

Since appeals to emotion are so popular, is the atheist willing to go up to a parent who lost a child to cancer who has just discovered that child’s grave now vandalized and tell them it doesn’t matter because it does nothing for society? Tbh, such appeals are not always the best route to take, but they can at least cause a person to second guess their commitment to an intellectual position.

 

[Blind_Didymus]

Human persons are to be respected as persons.

Their bodies too are to be respected. Bodies of persons.

Does anyone want the body of their mother to be disrespected?

Dug up and thrown out?

No.

Even Atheists do not want their loved ones body dug up and mistreated.

Ah, historically in various parts of Europe graves are dug up after some time (typically 99 years) and reused for someone else due to lack of space.

Aside from that, many people have their ashes scattered which is exactly the same as throwing them away.

While what you say may well be true in regards to many atheists, this particular person probably wouldn’t care sorry to say.

 

[adamhovey1988]

Ah, historically in various parts of Europe graves are dug up after some time (typically 99 years) and reused for someone else due to lack of space.

Aside from that, many people have their ashes scattered which is exactly the same as throwing them away.

While what you say may well be true in regards to many atheists, this particular person probably wouldn’t care sorry to say.

because I would rather someone not desecrate my father’s resting place

 

[Blind_Didymus]

loved ones honor the memory of the person

Your argument could be of some use thank you but the question still remains as to why people honour the memory of the dead?

respect for the dead serves towards being respect for those still living who wish to memorialize, for themselves anyway, that person who is no longer here.

Again this could assist but why memorialise the dead anyway? That’s really the point that this atheist fellow is getting at. He considers it a superstitious custom of no practical value.

is the atheist willing to go up to a parent who lost a child… and tell them it doesn’t matter because it does nothing for society?

That may be a question worth asking although I’m unsure how he’ll react. I suspect he’ll say that he wouldn’t because he wouldn’t want to upset the person but that there is still no practical purpose for respecting the dead. Nonetheless, at least it’ll give him something to think about thank you.

 

[Blind_Didymus]

because I would rather someone not desecrate my father’s resting place

I agree mate and thankfully here in Australia we have lots of land but the question still arises from time to time over whether or not the 99 year rollover should be introduced. At least, as far as I know, we don’t allow bankrupt cemetaries to be bulldozed and turned into residential land as has apparently happened in some parts of the world though.

 

[Bookcat]

Ah, historically in various parts of Europe graves are dug up after some time (typically 99 years) and reused for someone else due to lack of space.

Aside from that, many people have their ashes scattered which is exactly the same as throwing them away.

While what you say may well be true in regards to many atheists, this particular person probably wouldn’t care sorry to say.

And?

So.

Historically people have murdered persons in large groups by invading armies…

Such is no reason to do so now. Nor does history make it good or right.

Again - what if one were to dig up their mother or another close loved one and give the remains to a dog?

Even an atheist is likely to see that such disrespect is not good.

It can be rather clear that if ones own dead loved ones bodies are to be not disrespected - so too others should likewise not be treated with disrespect.

Now cultures can argue as to what is disrespectful, and still agree that one should not disrespect the dead.

 

[boomerang]

The other day I commented on an article on FB about a graveyard being vandalised saying that our society needs to be retaught to respect the dead. Someone else asked why, saying that respect for the dead does nothing to benefit society. As this person is an atheist, explanations about how the dead will be resurrection don’t get very far.

How would you respond to this person?

Thank you for your thoughtful answers in advance

Well surely he or she can wrap their head around the idea of destruction of property, whether it be a cemetery, school, home, parks, works of art, etc, is not OK. That said, if you have no respect for the dead, you most likely won’t have respect for the living, either.

 

[Pat_Payne]

Ah, historically in various parts of Europe graves are dug up after some time (typically 99 years) and reused for someone else due to lack of space.

That’s not a 1:1 analogy. In those cases the bodies were still treated with care and placed in an ossuary or other dignified resting place (even if some of them could get a mite morbid). It wasn’t like they just chucked the bones in a river.

Aside from that, many people have their ashes scattered which is exactly the same as throwing them away.

Again, not a 1:1 comparison. Although we Catholics can NOT do this with ashes, the people doing it aren’t thinking of it as “throwing the ashes away” but allowing their loved one to be part of a place that had special significance during their life for eternity. Usually the scattering is by the request of the deceased prior to their death.

 

[JanetF]

One could counter with “Why disrespect the dead?”

 

[Mickey_Finn]

The other day I commented on an article on FB about a graveyard being vandalised saying that our society needs to be retaught to respect the dead. Someone else asked why, saying that respect for the dead does nothing to benefit society. As this person is an atheist, explanations about how the dead will be resurrection don’t get very far.

How would you respond to this person?

Thank you for your thoughtful answers in advance

You can easily judge the health of a society by the level of respect it shows it’s dead.