The Significance of Death Rites

I was talking to another friend yesterday about how disgusted I was with most of the new Christian converts today. They have been so well brainwashed by their churches and cell leaders that they have forgotten how to value their culture over the new teachings. I’m speaking from the point of a Chinese who does not have a religion but with plenty of respect for culture and tradition.

Many of our ancestors are Taoists or Buddhists, where there is a strong belief in life after death. I was quite sad when an acquaintance refused to offer a joss stick to her grandmother just because her church told her that God condones such actions as evil. I was quite disgusted when I heard that, if God is such a petty and vindictive entity, that he doesn’t deserve the respect and reverence that we offer him/her/it (depending on the religion). Offering a joss stick to your ancestor is not a violation of your new faith, it is a symbol of your respect for your grandmother, for remembering that she brought you up, cooked your favorite food and how she was there for you to talk to when you needed her.

Similarly, many look upon the Taoist and Buddhist chanting and rites during funerals as nothing but an unnecessary expenditure on charlatans who are out to cheat stupid people of their money. That’s really sad; it creates a stigma that all non-Christians are steeped in superstition that is both backward and evil. Some believe that the deceased will never enjoy a peaceful after life if he did not convert to the way of the Christ. I would like to point out how wrong these misconceptions are. Death rites are to comfort the living rather than the dead.

As mentioned in my earlier posts “The fascination with Death and Immortality” and “The Origins of Religion”, I mentioned how mankind has always been obsessed with death and what lies beyond it. Death rites are a manifestation of this fear. The concept of heaven and hell was created to inspire good deeds and discourage evil among people. The Chinese proposed the concept of the 18 levels of hell (Diyu 地狱), with each level punishing a person for different sins. The Muslims and Christians believe that sinners and non-believers will be condemned to hell, with the latter being doomed to remain there for all eternity. Since you can either be Muslim OR Christian, I guess your soul will be hotly contested between 2 divine entities, one trying to place you in heaven and the other trying to stuff you into hell. So ultimately, let’s forget about trying to do good since we’re destined to go to hell anyway.

I’m joking. I don’t believe in hell, I think having your conscience to guide you is good enough. I rather die knowing that I listened to my conscience than to wonder if I’m going to hell just because I had murderous thoughts about annoying friend. Hell is an artificial construct created by people to scare themselves into behaving properly. So be good for your sake and for the people around you, not for God. If everyone were to think like this, society would be at peace. This should be the basis of morality- a set of behavioral norms that define relations between individuals in society

Now let’s go back to the topic about death rites- why is it more for the living then the dead? Well, let’s put it this way, the dead have no physical bodies, they have no need for material goods anymore. They are beyond that. Do they need the houses, cars, televisions sets, radio sets and jewelry that the Taoists burn for their material comforts in the next life? Even if they received the offerings, would it be in the form of paper houses, cars and hollow TVs? Is there electricity in hell? Can the TVs and radios operate without circuit boards? No one knows…

Through archaeology, we can understand that people from civilizations across the world have always maintained a sentimental value towards their departed relatives and friends. In most tomb excavations, we find personal artifacts being buried with the deceased in hopes that he will find it useful in the next life. A warrior would have been buried with his sword and shield, with a little food to sustain him on the way to the next world. The Egyptian Pharaohs had chests full of food and rooms of furniture that they once used in their tombs; scribes were laid to rest with their beloved writing implements and farmers with their tools.

To me, the spirits of the dead still exists somewhere else, I don’t think they are in hell nor do I think they are in heaven. They are around us but they no longer have the ability to partake in the joys of mortality- physical sensation, physical needs, and physical wants. That’s what differentiates us from them. When we have funeral rites, such as burning incense, saying prayers, etc, it is comfort the living relatives by giving them an illusion that their loved ones would be comfortable and in need of nothing in the next life (if any).

Based on the fact that no one has ever given a verifiable report from the land of the dead, we can assume that everything that we know about life after death is artificially constructed by humans. The dead are beyond worries and material needs. They are at rest at last. So death rites are thus contrived as a means to comfort grieving relatives, with the assurance that the departed would be happy at last.