HW 46 - Initial Thoughts on the Care of the Dead

In class we had a discussion where someone briefly brought up how the dead is often highly respected, no matter how nasty they were when they were alive. I started to think about this and I believe that this is the case because death is something that none of us have experienced. In life, generally speaking, the choices we make are when mold us and if someone disagrees with another person's choices (i.e would have handled a situation differently) they are somewhat entitled not to like them for it because their experiences and perspective. But in terms of dying, none of us have a clear picture of what a dead man or woman is (or isn't) going through. They are also no longer able to defend themselves so it feels extremely cruel to attack someone or dislike them in their weakest state.

I believe this relates to how good the care of the dead is because we ultimately respect the dead almost more than the living. When someone dies, the living then becomes accountable for their body.  Because the dead person isn't alive to oversee how well you take care of them, it seems like we would care less. But I believe that religion is also a factor in this case because the death and afterlife are unknown and religion is the answer/ explanation to the unknown. So, someone dying is a reminder that there might actually be something beyond earth and that someone/something might actually be looking down on us. Also, good care taking of the dead is reassuring for all of us who will eventually die and will hopefully be taken good care of as well.