Atheists Aren’t Buried Here

This reminds me of my favorite cemetery in Chicago, The Bohemian National on Pulaski between Foster & Bryn Mawr. It has some of the best cemetery art around. From their website: “The Bohemian National Cemetery of Chicago is a Fraternal not for profit cemetery founded in 1877 by Bohemian, Moravian and Slovak immigrants and their descendants to provide a dignified place for burials free of religious restraints. The cemetery is available to all religions, nationalities and races.”
It is well worth visiting. http://bohemiannationalcemeterychicago.org/information.html

Real estate can be important even in death. I remember the details that we took into consideration about the cemetary – was it secluded, well-maintained, secure from vandals, are there likely to be trashy people buried near by whose family might visit at the same time we do?

I imagine Catholics may wish to grieve or reminisce with fellow Catholics or with others who share their traditions.

I’ve seen gravesite visitors who light smokey incense. Others celebrate various holidays at the gravemarkers – they look like they’re at a picnic.

Incidentally, there is a separate area in the same cemetary specifically for those of the Jewish persuasion.

My father bought plots for each of his 5 children, the future spouses of his 2 sons(yes, he was an optimist) and my mother in a Muslim cemetery here in Michigan while me and my siblings were still kids. I don’t see a need to go out and buy another plot as I already have one. Yes, I’m cheap.
My ex-wife (Christian) was enraged when she discovered these arrangements several years after we were married. It had never occured to me to discuss it before marriage.
My current wife (who is an atheist) is okay with the arrangements as she is from Tatarstan and identifies culturally as a Muslim Tatar.
Christians certainly aren’t the only ones to exclude based on religion. My father told me several times how Christians lived on the outskirts of his hometown in south Lebanon, but weren’t allowed to live in the town itself. They were treated as outcasts.
I seriously doubt there are any Christians in the cemetery I’m going to be buried in. I’ve never seen any Christian markers the few times I’ve been out there.

When I die, just double-bag me and throw my carcass in the local universal animal disposal cold room along with all the laboratory rats.

Or put my carcass in a burlap bag, weight it down with rocks, and throw me overboard to feed the crabs.

I have simple needs after I die… just the desire to save my family the cost of an expensive funeral.

Coming from a Pole, Czech’s are beautiful =)

@Hoverfrog: I’m gonna do the same thing when I go. Don’t embalm me, don’t spend thousands of dollars on a tacky coffin, don’ waste a fortune on a gravestone. Just throw me in the ground and let me rot (after the useful bits have been “recycled” as you say).

When my father died, (within the week of his death) a “friend” of my mother’s sent her a Christian tract about illness being caused by having made a deal with the devil. This so-called friend was a Lutheran who my parents had supported and nurtured through some very rough times. My father, being a Catholic, was, of course, beyond redemption, but the message to my mother was clear – make sure you’re straight with the big you know who or you’ll die too. What I wanted to ask this woman was who did she think was buried in the cemetery surrounding her church? Surely the righteous live forever, n’est ce pas? Anyway, better to be cremated or buried or whatever and used to grow home-grown tomatoes, as the song says, than share sacred ground with the undead ( Christians don’t die because death is the result of sin.) If I had been older I would have taken her on, but I was too young to feel her peer and too respectful to attack, what was only a limited intellectual capacity, of an elder.

At least they let atheists have a burial. In the country I live in, if you are an atheist and die, they refuse burial outright. Either they deem you a Muslim and you have a Muslim funeral or … In fact, that is all. You have no other choice. Cremation is also banned. If you are a vehement and outspoken atheist and they can’t claim your lifeless body is one of a Muslim, you can and will be denied burial outright.

To be fair, Xtians have a right to bury their dead. Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is constantly threatened and harassed but international pressure lets them do their thing. Of course, you can’t also be Turkish and Christian(Or any other religion or non-theist). You will be killed you for it. (see. apostasy in Islam)

I agree with Sarah, Jeff, Hoverfrog. My dead body doesn’t need any special treatment. I don’t really care even if I get a sky burial, however a religious funeral would be an outrageous disrespect to me.

But they still don’t want you nearby, even when you’re dead.

Don’t you understand!!?? If the proper Holy Rites are not performed, the body will rise as a zombie and lurch about eating BRAINS!!

They’re just afraid we’ll drag them to Hell with us.

Hey at least they got actual graves with actual headstones, right? Some Atheists have been denied even that much, because of their activism. There ought to be a fund to ensure that their wishes not be totally ignored, and their identity hidden.