Bodies

[rain]

....................

Edited April 17, 2008 by rain

[sunshine]

but sunshine

You are in the context. you are

the context.

 

 

But a cadaver is a waste, will rot and come back to earth, it's not alive, and it's not suffering, so i don't see anything wrong about that. Maybe you are gross out or think about it as something sacred. Most catholics and christians for example have a deep respect for cadavers. They should not go and see this exhibition then, because it will upset them. That doesn't make it wrong though.

 

 

Well. There are two things that come to mind:

1st I tend to "judge" based on intent... I personally feel that guys "intent" to be wrong!

 

2nd there are others who are much more qualified to talk about it, but: the separation of the souls of the body in Taoist context seem not to happen in an instant (although I have heard different teachers say different things about it)... NOW: if we take that into account and knew about the time between death and dissection for art we could talk about the question of "sacredness" in a different way taken out of mere religious context, if one is willing to believe in "souls of the body"...

 

 

Harry

[passenger1980]

Well. There are two things that come to mind:

1st I tend to "judge" based on intent... I personally feel that guys "intent" to be wrong!

 

2nd there are others who are much more qualified to talk about it, but: the separation of the souls of the body in Taoist context seem not to happen in an instant (although I have heard different teachers say different things about it)... NOW: if we take that into account and knew about the time between death and dissection for art we could talk about the question of "sacredness" in a different way taken out of mere religious context, if one is willing to believe in "souls of the body"...

 

 

Harry

 

That's fighting fire with fire. I'm not an atheist, i'm a deep believer in life after death, and therefore some sort of soul, but i can't prove that, and i don't know anybody that can, so we have to move with what we do know and can prove empirically. That's common sense and logic, and we'll loose ground otherwise. A cadaver is dead and it's not coming back to life in the physical world, unless you believe in zombies (which are awesome of course).

[sunshine]

That's common sense and logic, and we'll loose ground otherwise.

 

What shall I say. This is a forum about Taost philosophy, arts & magic & & &

 

there are people here who believe in superpowers and immortality

 

we want to argue about common sense & logic?

 

 

Harry

[passenger1980]

What shall I say. This is a forum about Taost philosophy, arts & magic & & &

 

there are people here who believe in superpowers and immortality

 

we want to argue about common sense & logic?

 

 

Harry

 

Don't get me wrong, i consider myself a Buddhist/Taoist in terms of philosophy at least, i do a lot of meditation, energy work & qi gong, i'm a firm believer in some sort of after life and many other things like karma, but we should remain grounded because is really easy to get carried away while discussing important topics. We can't fool ourselves. At the end, we really don't know for sure. That's why i can't stand religion overall, they are all owners of the truth, but no one can actually prove what they preach. And that's not common sense, and certainly not logical. It's actually quite the opposite, delusional.

[Taomeow]

So... would you like your mother, father, child to be exhibited like that? Would you like to be an exhibit of this kind yourself once you die?

 

Very educational indeed. The public is being trained in becoming very acceptive of the wonderful, beautiful dehumanization. Playful corpses on display -- how very cute! Corpses are cute after all, now that we're educated well enough to finally notice! Not like all those countless generations of our uneducated, silly ancestors who thought one's dead body was one's private property. We now know that one's dead body is really a product for public consumption that should be making money for some other body, some owner or other... just like the live body was. Why take exception with the dead body? OK, lampshades made out of human skin (another technologically superior German invention) and soap rendered from human fat went out of style circa 1945, so it's time to find new, improved uses for the dead human body if we want to make it into a product for public consumption... something tasteful... well, if we say it's "educational," the public will have no objections -- anything educational is tasteful by default, right?..

 

Besides, someone who has visited such an exhibition will have an overall better tolerance of dead human bodies here and there -- a useful trait to cultivate in the population just in case some kind of extermination might become necessary again --

-- so better have people properly prepared, properly desensitized to dehumanization well in advance. Cultivate the taste for the decay till it becomes second nature to smile instead of throwing up. What government wouldn't want its constituents to smile happily no matter what they're looking at?.. Most useful educational tool ever.

[seadog]

I think taomeow ask the most pertinent question.What if it was someone whom you loved being displayed?

[rain]

I think taomeow ask the most pertinent question.What if it was someone whom you loved being displayed?

 

 

if you could look at it the way i would there would be a strong sacred experience.

 

From dust to dust.

 

You can burn us, dig us down, throw us to the wind, exhibit. Yes I think it is fine. God the allmighty can create us infinitely from nothing if he she then so wishes. From stardust. It is just feeble man who strives to get his claws on eternal life.

Edited December 14, 2007 by rain

[passenger1980]

I think taomeow ask the most pertinent question.What if it was someone whom you loved being displayed?

 

Of course. If a relative or friend of mine had made that decision and donated his body for that particular cause, i will completely respect its wish. The only minor problem would be seeing them exposed, almost in a naked/nudity sort of way, but that after all, is some sort of attachment and cultural heritage.

 

If i can't overcome that or if i really don't want to look at my mother's sexual organs, then i would just simply not attend the exhibition. But that clearly doesn't make the whole thing wrong per se.