Recently, I attended a wake. I expected it to be like every other wake I have ever attended: sign the guest book, console the survivors, look at pictures the family has on display and share a few stories. This wake went much the same way, just as I expected.
However, this wake offered a surprise. The coffin of the recently deceased contained a built-in safe for placing various keepsakes that will be buried with the deceased. A number of questions rolled through my mind. Why would a coffin need a safe? Of course, people do rob graves, but I don’t think grave robbers are that common, and to place keepsakes in the safe and not valuables seems to nullify the reason for a safe. Who holds the key? It would seem illogical for the deceased to hold the key for the deceased could never use it, but also, if the grave was robbed the deceased would offer the key to the robber, again nullifying the use of a safe.
But, there was yet another surprise lurking within this vessle of eternity. A time capsule. This was not the keepsake safe, nor was it another place to store items that could be examined by a future archaeologist or anthropologist (who could, ironically, be classified as grave robbers but just ones who are well-educated). No, this was a tiny little pill-sized electronic time capsule, a computer chip, containing identifying information about the deceased including the obituary, photos, documents, and more. At the time, one explanation offered for this time capsule was that if the coffin were ever disturbed and displaced (grave robber? earthquake?) the coffin and its occupant could easily be identified for proper return to the gravesite. However, all of that other information certainly wouldn’t be needed to return property to its former address.
So, for what purpose do the safe and electronic time capsule exist? The deceased have often been buried with objects either important to them or what the survivors think will be needed by the deceased in the next realm. The only thing accomplished by placing objects in the coffin is that they will be buried and forever gone just like the deceased themselves. The electronic time capsule is a bit different. It is going on a journey with no destination. Dare I say a road to nowhere? Is it important to know exactly who is buried in the coffin 100 or 500 years from now? The only reason I can think of is idolatry. The process and ceremony of a funeral and burial have been, for centuries, an exercise in personal idolatry. Now it is being taken to a whole new level. Instead of just being a form of worship of the recently deceased, coffins with electronic time capsules serve to tell the future grave diggers or catastrophe workers exactly who you are — as if it really mattered.
This was a Christian funeral. Isn’t the first commandment that you shall not have/woship any other gods? Aren’t you supposed to avoid graven images? The words spoken by the pastor contained the ever constant words at every Christian funeral, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust”, but from whence came nothing certainly returned with something more. Who says you can’t take it with you?
Jim Croce may have wanted to save time in a bottle, but he was simply behind the times. We now save time in a small capsule and allow our successors to swallow it at will. Personal idolatry for Christians is not just a good idea — it’s a requirement.
Tags: Apsu, capsule, Christ, commandment, Croce, electronic, family, god, LDS, Logic, photo
Apparently the promise of an afterlife isn’t quite good enough for some Christians.
That’s very strange. I have not heard of these items being included in a coffin before. This brings to mind Egyptian tombs filled with gold and treasure and ancient China when a man’s family and servants were buried right along with him. It’s taking superstition to a whole new level.
I’m not so sure it’s all about superstition. I think it might, for some, act as a disconnect for the living. You’re sending not only your relative into the ground, but also mementos. Perhaps you’re going to a greater length to sever the emotional connection by sending away items that would cause you more grief if you were forced to possess, sell, or otherwise dispose of them. It’s easier just to say, “Frank can take it with him.”
Of course, that’s obviously not how everyone feels, and it’s probably not something even those who are really feeling that way would (or could) admit.
What fascinates me is not the items we bury our dead with, but, instead, the mere fact that we bury them at all, and especially in rather durable boxes. That, and the preservation techniques we use. All very odd. Religious? Perhaps. Superstitious, probably in origin. The question is, does it do any real harm? Should it be something we rationals avoid?
I’m not sure.
Well personally i think it would be really cool to have something like that for my great great great great grandkids to be able to see pictures etc of me 500 years later. Idolatry? Hardly. Did you ever actually ask them for a clear answer? Seems like you came to your own conclusion
Your great great great great grandkids are going to dig up your buried corpse? Hmmmmm.