Unfortunately, christian theology has since advanced to the point where the physical body is not that important. I don’t think my parents feel enough connection to historical christianity for me to pull this one off (they expect new bodies after the resurrection, for example). However—is there a good popular-level source for this? I’d still be interested. Maybe I could use something along these lines.
It really depends on which sect of Christianity they are members of and their own personal views of the matter. Mormonism for example does not officially take a stance but strongly encourages burial vs cremation whenever possible. Catholicism “earnestly recommends” burial, and actively forbid cremation until the sixties; also, even though they tolerated it, they would not perform any ceremonies for cremated deceased until the eighties. According to my understanding, Eastern Orthodox still doesn’t allow cremation, but my knowledge of that branch is a bit more sketchy. As an aside, I believe cremation is banned by Judaism and Islam (though I assume this varies by branch, and my knowledge is even less comprehensive for these cases).
In my case I already knew they were against cremation, so this was just tailoring the message of cryonics to what they’d accept. It shifted them from thinking cryonics was ‘unnatural’ to thinking it was ‘nice but too expensive’. Hopefully one day they’ll shift even more to ‘hey I can afford that’.
Unfortunately, christian theology has since advanced to the point where the physical body is not that important. I don’t think my parents feel enough connection to historical christianity for me to pull this one off (they expect new bodies after the resurrection, for example). However—is there a good popular-level source for this? I’d still be interested. Maybe I could use something along these lines.
It really depends on which sect of Christianity they are members of and their own personal views of the matter. Mormonism for example does not officially take a stance but strongly encourages burial vs cremation whenever possible. Catholicism “earnestly recommends” burial, and actively forbid cremation until the sixties; also, even though they tolerated it, they would not perform any ceremonies for cremated deceased until the eighties. According to my understanding, Eastern Orthodox still doesn’t allow cremation, but my knowledge of that branch is a bit more sketchy. As an aside, I believe cremation is banned by Judaism and Islam (though I assume this varies by branch, and my knowledge is even less comprehensive for these cases).
In my case I already knew they were against cremation, so this was just tailoring the message of cryonics to what they’d accept. It shifted them from thinking cryonics was ‘unnatural’ to thinking it was ‘nice but too expensive’. Hopefully one day they’ll shift even more to ‘hey I can afford that’.