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Roman church decorated with 4k skeletons

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Roman church decorated with 4k skeletons

#121

Post by timeon »

NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #92
mc32 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some cultures that believe the remains of their ancestors are sacred. How would you encourage them to accept your POV?

Roman Catholic culture is one of those by far. What better way to attest to the sacredness of human remains but to incorporate them into the most sacred architecture we have? Human remains of Catholics are buried until their cause for canonization calls for exhumation and examination of the relics. By the time of canonization, division of the relics has begun and they are distributed for veneration to various communi…

> Human remains of Catholics are buried until

Until your family stops paying for the grave. Then someone else will get the place.

Re: Roman church decorated with 4k skeletons

#122

Post by jl6 »

Aeolun wrote: post #95
user3939382 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Who promised you tomorrow?" - St. Alphonsus Liguori, Preparation for Death

In some ways, the 10000+ previous days of my life are a fairly reasonable promise of tomorrow.

They say past performance does not guarantee future results…

Re: Roman church decorated with 4k skeletons

#124

Post by prewett »

akomtu wrote: post #113
photochemsyn wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean, for example: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2018/11/01/respect-for... > "Respect for dead bodies manifests itself in diverse ways in different cultures around the world.In Islamic law and Muslim cultures, burying the dead in the ground is the correct way to respect dead bodies. Cremation is prohibited under Islamic law because, unlike in some cultures, it is considered a violation of the dignity o…

A stable society stands on a set of shared principles, not on blind respect of each other traditions, no matter what those are. That no-cremation rule was made for a good reason, but that reason can't be explained to masses, hence the "just do what the sacred book tells you!" A dead body isn't completely dead, so it's better (more respectful, indeed) to keep it for two months, and then it can be burnt. But you can't…

I don't think viewing religious tradition as "we don't want to explain our reasoning to you plebs" is doing justice to the religion.

I believe Catholicism does have a reason that is understandable by common folk: since Jesus will resurrect the faithful to be with him in the new heavens, earth, and Jerusalem (which are seen as physical, not an abstract "Heaven" like modern American evangelicals tend to see it), there needs to be a body to resurrect.

(I'm not Catholic and never sure what Catholics actually believe, so I might be wrong here)

Re: Roman church decorated with 4k skeletons

#126

Post by whatshisface »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #51
Grazester wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't they tell you they believe in hell? It is mentioned in pray it was used to scare me into not misbehaving as a child by my teachers who were priests and nuns. This is not a secret nor did they try to hide it.

> by my teachers who were priests and nuns The Catholic Church has always believed in Hell. Jesus himself made reference to Gehenna (which was literally a valley of death back when he was alive, the Valley of Hinnom , where the Bible also documents child sacrifice to have occurred), as well as symbolically with the parable of the wedding feast. For this reason, many Catholic saints were themselves quite afraid of it…

>the Catholic understanding is that the souls in Hell are obstinate in their sin and obstinately do not want to be in Heaven

It sure is easy to answer questions when you can just make things up... "Oh, they're just expressing their preferences."

Re: Roman church decorated with 4k skeletons

#127

Post by [deleted] »

photochemsyn wrote: post #109
mc32 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for those who aren’t Catholic, or any religion or spirituality that doesn’t have this interpretation?

Do you mean, for example: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2018/11/01/respect-for... > "Respect for dead bodies manifests itself in diverse ways in different cultures around the world.In Islamic law and Muslim cultures, burying the dead in the ground is the correct way to respect dead bodies. Cremation is prohibited under Islamic law because, unlike in some cultures, it is considered a violation of the dignity o…

[deleted]

Re: Roman church decorated with 4k skeletons

#128

Post by gerdesj »

BizarreByte wrote: post #119
BeFlatXIII wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being born is a death sentence.

Some would say it’s incredibly cruel to bring new life into existence for that very reason.

Yet those same people (whomever they are) continue to perpetuate their own "cruel" existence.

Re: Roman church decorated with 4k skeletons

#130

Post by whatshisface »

photochemsyn wrote: post #55

A great many people are incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of death, and installations like this, and similar works of art, are a great antidote. Accepting death as the price of life might be a bit difficult for people raised in a culture that worships perpetual youth and which dreams of immortality, perhaps in the form of a digital silicon upload, but it's really a sign of maturity. Taking a minute or so out of…

I don't know about you but seeing a big pile of skeletons in a basement mainly serves to confirm the ideas about death that I already had.

It's also kind of misleading because they're not complaining but dying is actually pretty awful unless you're really, really lucky.

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