The New Scientist letters column

[dreamer_easy]

.. always full of interest, particularly when it comes to what we may reasonably call my religion, which is Eclectic Wiccan with a Mesopotamian and Ancient Egyptian influences and a large dose of Zen Buddhism. I like to observe my spontaneous responses to religious and philosophical questions raised by the letter writers

Comments

[lferion]

Oh interesting! I want to think about several parts of this.

[dreamer_easy]

I must try to find the original article, the one the irate letter-writer is responding to. I'm particularly interested in whether there's some urgent need for cadavers for medical research.

[acelightning]

Well, you know the old saying, "If you have two Wiccans in a room, you have at least three opinions." The following isn't only my opinion, but it certainly fits an "Earth-centered religion".

The late folksinger Lee Hays was ahead of many of us when it came to things like recycling. In his later years, in declining health, he wrote this poem:

In Dead Earnest

If I should die before I wake,
All my bone and sinew take:
Put them in the compost pile
To decompose a little while.
Sun, rain, and worms will have their way,
Reducing me to common clay.
All that I am will feed the trees
And little fishes in the seas.
When corn and radishes you munch,
You may be having me for lunch.
Then excrete me with a grin,
Chortling, "There goes Lee again!"
Twill be my happiest destiny
To die and live eternally.I've heard this viewpoint expanded thusly: When someone dies, have him/her cremated, then mix the ashes into the compost bin. Fertilize the vegetable garden with the compost. When harvest

[lynsaurus]

Both?

[kelemvor]

The question now becomes: is this my thinking because it arises from Wiccan ideas, or is it just a a gut reaction to what seems like a heartless attitude, and I've rationalised it with Wiccan ideas ex post facto?

Does it matter? The end result is the same - a visceral response that the only cadavers to be used for medical or scientific research are those whose previous owners firmly and unequivocally expressed this. However, given the form of words that you used to express the idea ("But the thought popped straight into my head..."), I would go with the former.

(My own preference would be to be fed to big cats in a reserve, but I doubt that that will happen unless I get drunk in my old age, break into one such place and piss off a tiger.)

[dreamer_easy]

Or indeed, piss on.

More seriously, I'd rather admit my opinion was emotional than pretend it was rational; but sometimes it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins.

[kelemvor]

I've seen "Life of Pi". I do *NOT* want to start an inter-species bestiality water sports scene!

Religion is (IMHO) more a matter of emotion than rationality, so that makes sense :)