The following continues the serialization of Chapter 5 on Religion from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:
The Future of Graveyards
So how can churches respond to the financial challenge? As cremation will soon overtake burial as the safekeeping technique of convenience, the logical next step will be storage of a small portion of your body which can someday be cloned to reproduce you. While cryogenic safekeeping would probably be best, it should not take much to keep a cubic centimeter of bone marrow, drop of blood or piece of your skin. Further, some technique will be devised at low energy and maintenance expense to preserve your DNA/RNA specimen, making the repository even more efficient.
There will be fly by night outfits to take your money, but the potential of a credible business succeeding around the world will happen, and soon. What organization already into searching for roots has the reliability, managerial ability, international roots and entrepreneurial capability to capture the marketplace? This “company” would need to have been around for a long time, having endured controversy, but nevertheless remain thriving. The answer, to me, is clear…the Mormon Church. What better way, also, of gaining new members? Already, Ancestry.com is taking cheek-swiped cotton swab and $200 to add DNA to your family tree. Yes, Sorenson Genomics, the firm doing the work, is headquartered in Utah.
All their temples will add a repository, which no doubt will resemble a mini crystal palace. The setting will be a comfortable purgatory where the visitor can punch in a code to electronically view a video of the person at rest. Flowers? No. People feel compelled to leave a remembrance at the headstone, so the Church will suggest a small donation instead. The opportunity will be utilized to provide just the right message for you to experience what the Church might offer you.
As the average funeral in the U.S. today costs $6500, and the price tag of sustaining this new enterprise, with amortization and all other costs calculated over the lifetime of the effort should be less than 1% of that expense (my guess). A simple one time charge of $1000 should be a financial and recruiting windfall for the Church. Analyzing the long-term total benefits, the future value of tithing, for example, a seeming lost leader charge of FREE, might even be considered. Each year, about 1% of the world population dies. Thus the potential exists for the Church to add 70 million new specimens each year. Every society honors the dead in some respectful manner. If the charge is to be free to secure your loved one, with the additional prospect of perhaps a resurrection someday, oh my, the practice should become universal.
Several billion bodies are already in the ground, and another billion or so as dust in urns. Most of these, while now essentially useless as cloning prospects, nevertheless can be transferred to these Mormon temples to keep the family together.
Now, all this sounds much too sacrilegious and sardonic. But if not the Mormon Church, then perhaps the Mayo Clinic or Rockefeller Foundation or some other organization with the sincere interest and means to carry out this ghoulish imperative for a profit, even. Perhaps every church can participate in some small way. This simple solution would make available land for other uses, reduce the cost of death and make it more convenient and comfortable to visit those who have passed on. Of course, most will merely do this at home through the internet. Amen.
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A banner day today, as the Dow Jones Industrials zoomed up 214 to 10,405, a three week high, perhaps stimulated by a successful debt offering of two PHIIGS, Spain and Ireland. Remember, Hungary was added to the acronym. Europe continues to drive values. All world markets were up today. Gold increased $13/tox to $1235 and crude oil jerked up to $75/barrel.
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There continues to be that active site in Atlantic, and now, two in the Pacific, with the newest one also south of Central American, one headed northwest and other west.
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