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Comment by kzrdude | Hacker News Reader

it's true that fulfilling his wishes has no point for him (at least not from our viewpoint among the living). It has a point for us, as a general phenomenon.

That man saw the writing on the wall and it turns out he was right. So we have to think about people in the same situation today, or other people. How do we respect them and their wishes when they are gone? Those who live now they see how we treat those who pass, and act and feel accordingly. A little bit of respect might go some way towards a more peaceful coexistance and a happier life while we are alive.

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I think this is probably the most sensible take.

Dead people don't care what happens to their remains. Any offended relatives are likely long dead. BUT there are plenty of people alive today who'd want to know the state can be relied upon to uphold the law about what happens with their body.

The majority of dead people from two centuries ago held views and wishes for society diametrically opposed to how many live their lives now — either because of religious dogma or simply a lack of understanding of things we do understand now. Are we going to cherry-pick which of their wishes are just and which completely bonkers in hindsight?

Yes we are going to use our current values to guide our actions.

We will use our current values to define taste, justice, and cultural behaviour. We will try to look at the actions of the past with understanding and we will try to think what people in the future might think as a lens to consider our own current situation.

And we'll laugh at anyone who tries to argue philosophically about definitions of right and wrong.

It's not about arbitrary wishes anyway. It's about respecting people's remains and a decent burial, which are rather timeless values (if we look backwards in time) even if customs vary.

This is not always true. People have treated mummies and the remains of people declared as saints quite differently than regular people. Occasionally people say we should rebury for the principle of the thing but in general that doesn't seem to happen.

Personally I find the first part, ie respecting peoples remains, as being the critical thing.

I'm gonna have to point out the obvious here, that most mummies and saints weren't regular people to begin with so they continue to be treated as such.

Saints also implies catholic who feel a certain type of way about how remains should be dealt with.

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