Do dead bodies really turn into soil?

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ehymw
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17 Jan 2015, 1:01 pm

Is it true?

How long does it take?

(Don't laugh my grandma is getting cremated and I'm worried about her and the resurrection)



Fnord
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17 Jan 2015, 1:59 pm

The soft parts take a very short time to decompose. Bones may take a few years, if exposed to high humidity. Teeth may take even longer. Predation speeds this process along.

Bodies immersed in salt water may completely dissolve in a year or two, if not consumed by sea creatures.

Cremation remains are all that's left of the bones and teeth after extreme heating. Dispersed on land or water, and they're likely to be reduced to a fine grit or dissolved completely in a few years.

As for the Ressurection, if you have faith that it is real, then that same faith should tell you that those who are resurrected in Christ will receive new bodies and the old bodies will be left behind.

And if you don't believe in the Ressurection, why worry? Eventually, our bodies all become food for the worms and fishes, anyway.


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slave
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18 Jan 2015, 2:37 am

ehymw wrote:
Is it true?

How long does it take?

(Don't laugh my grandma is getting cremated and I'm worried about her and the resurrection)


If your particular god can't resurrect her, then perhaps you could trade that god in for a newer model. There are sooooo many to choose from. I hear Odin and Shiva are popular this time of year.

Cremated remains are mostly a fine medium grey ash.
Our bodies decompose exactly like other mammals, such as deer, sheep, squirrels, etc...
The elements that make up our bodies (Carbon, Sodium, etc...) remain in the soil until utilized by another organism.



ehymw
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18 Jan 2015, 11:18 pm

I thought I made it clear I didn't want jokes. :(



Fnord
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18 Jan 2015, 11:19 pm

We answered your question.

You're welcome.

:roll:


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aradesh
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19 Jan 2015, 4:15 am

Fnord's answer sounds like a good serious answer, and not a joke.

I'm surprised though that he says bones decompose only in a few years. I would have thought a few centuries? But that's just the impression I was under. Obviously under certain conditions they can get preserved, and still be in-tact hundreds of thousands or millions of years later, hence the dinosaur skeletons in the natural history museum in London.

Fnord: By the way I like your user name. For some reason I came across the made-up word "fnord" a few years ago and it has always popped into my head on a semi-regular basis since then. In fact it must have been 10 or 15 years ago when I came across the word "fnord". I have this habit of saynig "a few years ago" to mean anything within the last 15 years... Getting old I guess :P



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19 Jan 2015, 4:39 am

ehymw wrote:
Is it true?

How long does it take?

(Don't laugh my grandma is getting cremated and I'm worried about her and the resurrection)

I'm pretty sure God can work out where all the loose bits are, if he can make her once he can probably do it again, don'tcha think?
At this stage in the game God's probably got resurrection pretty well developed and 'bug-free'.
God is there to take away our worries and fears, don't worry or you'll make God pointless...


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19 Jan 2015, 4:53 am



lostonearth35
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20 Jan 2015, 12:28 am

Human bodies in traditional graves generally take a long time to decompose because they've been pumped up full of embalming fluid and other chemicals to slow down the process and reduce odors. This makes them somewhat less unpleasant to look at during a funeral but after they're buried all that junk seeps into the soil and makes it toxic. It's very unnatural, and we are meant to become a food source for something else when our life cycle is complete just like other animals and plants. And people can't be resurrected after they've died. I know there are religious fanatics who think if you donate organs or even your blood that is a major sin and you will go to hell, and that you're better off dying than receiving an donation. I think that is ridiculous, and what about people who lose organs or limbs in accidents or from disease? If you were somehow resurrected after being buried it wouldn't be easy or pleasant to claw your way back up through several feet of tightly-packed dirt.



ehymw
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25 Jan 2015, 2:35 am

lostonearth35 wrote:
Human bodies in traditional graves generally take a long time to decompose because they've been pumped up full of embalming fluid and other chemicals to slow down the process and reduce odors. This makes them somewhat less unpleasant to look at during a funeral but after they're buried all that junk seeps into the soil and makes it toxic. It's very unnatural, and we are meant to become a food source for something else when our life cycle is complete just like other animals and plants. And people can't be resurrected after they've died. I know there are religious fanatics who think if you donate organs or even your blood that is a major sin and you will go to hell, and that you're better off dying than receiving an donation. I think that is ridiculous, and what about people who lose organs or limbs in accidents or from disease? If you were somehow resurrected after being buried it wouldn't be easy or pleasant to claw your way back up through several feet of tightly-packed dirt.


You don't know what happens to us when we die.

You only know what happens to the body.



Feyokien
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25 Jan 2015, 3:14 am

Nah only bones that get quickly buried will remain preserved for a long time to the point that they might be replaced by minerals and become fossils. Otherwise the Americas would be covered with the skeletons of the hundreds of millions of Native Americans who died from the arrival of European Diseases.



ehymw
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05 Feb 2015, 10:20 pm

So almost bodies and bones eventually turn into soil?



Fnord
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05 Feb 2015, 10:23 pm

That's pretty much the case, unless the body is very well preserved or the bones become fossilized.


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06 Feb 2015, 12:58 am

I used to work in a funeral home. I'm very sorry to hear about your grandmother, I'm assuming she died. If so you have my condolences. If not and you are just asking for future reference, I'll explain burial and cremation to you. I'll also put in my two cents about the resurrection, but I'll give you facts and logic based on where you are coming from, not to argue religion with you. Hopefully this will ease your mind.

When somebody is cremated, their flesh and organs are burned to ask. Parts of teeth and bones that have not burned are put into grinders to grind them down to fine powder and are mixed with the ash and given to the family or placed in a burial spot for cremains. When they are spread outside or at sea, as some people like to do, they become part of the environment and mix in with whatever they land on, usually the ground itself, or trees and then fall to the ground over time. It becomes part of the soil but it's not soil by itself.

When someone is buried, they are buried in a casket which is placed inside a metal vault or a concrete graveliner with a bottom, sides, and lid. They decompose inside the casket, and whether or not they have been embalmed is a factor in how long this takes. Embalmed people do decompose, it just takes longer. The casket may decompose sooner or later, depending on whether it is wood or metal, and what kind of metal and what kind of liner you have. Concrete liners allow water in and some caskets do too, so that is also a factor. The liner or vault may deteriorate as well over time, again, depending on how long it has been there and what it's made of. People have found caskets hundreds of years old, still sealed and opened them to find bones, so it can take a very long time for a casket and liner to detoriate to the point where the body touches and mixes with the earth to become soil.

Soil is not made up of the planets surface and the organic matter that is on the planet. There are many things in soil.

As for the resurrection, if she couldn't be resurrected on the last day because she was cremated, then that would mean two things. It would mean God is unable to do so or it would mean that he denies that to those who have burned after or during death. Now, since you believe in God, you would have to completely disagree with the first answer that He is unable to do so because He is omnipotent. He can do everything. So we are establishing that within your belief system, He is able to resurrect those whose bodies have burned, so don't worry about that. On to the second answer, that He would refuse to resurrect those who are burned either during or after death. Would He refuse to resurrect someone who was a good Christian and had been hit by a drunk driver and burned to death in a car accident? Would He refuse to resurrect someone who had been in a plane crash and burned to death? Someone who died of the plague in the Middle Ages and was burned because they felt they should burn the dead bodies to stop the spread of disease? No. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God would not resurrect you unless you were buried whole, in a grave somewhere. Even back when it was written, people died and their bodies may not have been found or were eaten by animals or were in fires. God didn't say that He wouldn't resurrect anyone if their body was burned.

The Catholic church used to ban cremation for it's members because of the resurrection, but the Pope said that unless you sought cremation to deny the resurrection, then it's not a problem. A person who seeks cremation so that they won't be resurrected is either someone trying to prove to others that they don't believe in the resurrection or someone who does believe in it but is afraid that their body will be reunited with their soul in Hell so they try to stop the resurrection that way. So, even the Catholic church says it's ok. Unless your grandmother had asked for cremation because she didn't believe in the resurrection or because she wanted to keep her body and soul from coming together in eternity, she's good to go.

Either way, if Christianity is correct and there is a resurrection, then no matter how your body is or where it is after death, it will come back. Even the bodies of those who have turned to dust and been mixed in with the soil and scattered or consumed by animals will have them back. I have no idea how that would be done, and didn't even when I was a devout Christian. So, don't worry about what God can do, just believe that He can do it and leave it to Him.

Unless you want to change your beliefs, and in that case talk to Fnord about it ;-). Or some others here. I'm content to let people believe what they wish.

I hope that eases your mind about your grandmother.


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naturalplastic
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06 Feb 2015, 5:34 pm

ehymw wrote:
Is it true?

How long does it take?

(Don't laugh my grandma is getting cremated and I'm worried about her and the resurrection)


The soul/spirit is one thing. That might get resurrected. Or not. Depending upon what theology you subscribe to.

But of course you body turns to soil. What else CAN it do?

Bugs and microbes eat you up and excrete you, and you get recycled. Some of you goes into the atmosphere, and gets breathed in by plants- and becomes part of plant tissue. That gets eaten. And so on. Your constituent atoms get sucked into various chemical cycles- in the soil, water, and air. Some of your atoms will end up in other people again. The atoms already in your body were once part of stars that exploded in supernovea before our solar system even formed billions of years ago.



ehymw
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08 Feb 2015, 2:38 am

OliveOilMom wrote:
I used to work in a funeral home. I'm very sorry to hear about your grandmother, I'm assuming she died. If so you have my condolences. If not and you are just asking for future reference, I'll explain burial and cremation to you. I'll also put in my two cents about the resurrection, but I'll give you facts and logic based on where you are coming from, not to argue religion with you. Hopefully this will ease your mind.

When somebody is cremated, their flesh and organs are burned to ask. Parts of teeth and bones that have not burned are put into grinders to grind them down to fine powder and are mixed with the ash and given to the family or placed in a burial spot for cremains. When they are spread outside or at sea, as some people like to do, they become part of the environment and mix in with whatever they land on, usually the ground itself, or trees and then fall to the ground over time. It becomes part of the soil but it's not soil by itself.

When someone is buried, they are buried in a casket which is placed inside a metal vault or a concrete graveliner with a bottom, sides, and lid. They decompose inside the casket, and whether or not they have been embalmed is a factor in how long this takes. Embalmed people do decompose, it just takes longer. The casket may decompose sooner or later, depending on whether it is wood or metal, and what kind of metal and what kind of liner you have. Concrete liners allow water in and some caskets do too, so that is also a factor. The liner or vault may deteriorate as well over time, again, depending on how long it has been there and what it's made of. People have found caskets hundreds of years old, still sealed and opened them to find bones, so it can take a very long time for a casket and liner to detoriate to the point where the body touches and mixes with the earth to become soil.

Soil is not made up of the planets surface and the organic matter that is on the planet. There are many things in soil.

As for the resurrection, if she couldn't be resurrected on the last day because she was cremated, then that would mean two things. It would mean God is unable to do so or it would mean that he denies that to those who have burned after or during death. Now, since you believe in God, you would have to completely disagree with the first answer that He is unable to do so because He is omnipotent. He can do everything. So we are establishing that within your belief system, He is able to resurrect those whose bodies have burned, so don't worry about that. On to the second answer, that He would refuse to resurrect those who are burned either during or after death. Would He refuse to resurrect someone who was a good Christian and had been hit by a drunk driver and burned to death in a car accident? Would He refuse to resurrect someone who had been in a plane crash and burned to death? Someone who died of the plague in the Middle Ages and was burned because they felt they should burn the dead bodies to stop the spread of disease? No. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God would not resurrect you unless you were buried whole, in a grave somewhere. Even back when it was written, people died and their bodies may not have been found or were eaten by animals or were in fires. God didn't say that He wouldn't resurrect anyone if their body was burned.

The Catholic church used to ban cremation for it's members because of the resurrection, but the Pope said that unless you sought cremation to deny the resurrection, then it's not a problem. A person who seeks cremation so that they won't be resurrected is either someone trying to prove to others that they don't believe in the resurrection or someone who does believe in it but is afraid that their body will be reunited with their soul in Hell so they try to stop the resurrection that way. So, even the Catholic church says it's ok. Unless your grandmother had asked for cremation because she didn't believe in the resurrection or because she wanted to keep her body and soul from coming together in eternity, she's good to go.

Either way, if Christianity is correct and there is a resurrection, then no matter how your body is or where it is after death, it will come back. Even the bodies of those who have turned to dust and been mixed in with the soil and scattered or consumed by animals will have them back. I have no idea how that would be done, and didn't even when I was a devout Christian. So, don't worry about what God can do, just believe that He can do it and leave it to Him.

Unless you want to change your beliefs, and in that case talk to Fnord about it ;-). Or some others here. I'm content to let people believe what they wish.

I hope that eases your mind about your grandmother.


Ummm.

Thanks for all the info.

Is a simple yes about bodies becoming soil in there? :lol: