Atheists if you are so smart: Why is it considered necessary to nail down the lid of a coffin?

eh? eh? answer me that one.Atheists if you are so smart: Why is it considered necessary to nail down the lid of a coffin?
so the person inside won't be able to complain about the lousy conditionsAtheists if you are so smart: Why is it considered necessary to nail down the lid of a coffin?
What the hell are you going on about?


Anyway I'm being embalmed.
I'm not an atheist, but I'll add my two cents anyway.





Maybe so the lid doesn't fall off if the coffin tips while being lowered into the grave, no one wants to see great aunt Martha dropped on her face.
Dead bodies that have not been embalmed smell as they decompose. Coffins are sealed and secured so that no one accidently opens it before burial.
what the...?
Maybe to keep animals out?
As a Christian I have to ask why this question was even asked. Coffins don't need to be nailed down...that myth is based on the superstitions of 200+ years ago (necromancy, vampires, etc) How exactly would the inability to answer a question, based on superstition from the past, somehow bring into question the intelligence of atheists?
they only nail the lid down if the body is in pieces, most coffins fit in so tight that they wont open anyway, i was told by a teacher
Especially since all that dirt is really heavy.





Anyway, it's my understanding that the soul commences to float upward even before the body is buried.


Like a little bubble in a 7-up.





It floats upward until it reaches the rarefied realm, and there it pops, and that's the end of that.


.
Most coffins don't require nails to keep the lid on or closed . Crude wooden boxes are usually nailed to keep the lid from falling off . I have no idea of what that has to do with religious belief , or the lack of it .
Religious people, if you are so smart why is it considered necessary to nail down the lid of a coffin?
Why would you target atheists in particular on this subject? I'm pretty sure that most every day people don't have much of an idea as to why this procedure is done, whether they're Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or Atheist.





1. Nailing shut a coffin speeds up the process of decay.


2. The nails are in place to make it harder for grave robbers, thieves, or crazed family members to open the casket and strip the body of valuables.


3. To seal out dirt, water, and other debris. Often times water would drip down and the glue that held the casket's lid on would rot and the lids would pop up, letting mud and other debris inside the casket.


4. To make it easier to re-open in such an instance that there was a controversy over the body buried.
Um, better safe than sorry?
So it doesnt come off when you're lowering the body into the ground
So superstitious people don't get scared of the boogie man.





To reverse the question, if it's anything supernatural, what good is nailing the lid shut going to do?
In case the body turns into a zombie or vampire, duh.





I never said I didn't believe in monsters, I just don't believe in god.
What does atheism have to do with burial?


That's one slippery slope you're riding on.
umm if your atheist you dont have to nail down a coffin?
This question is irrelevant











You will not need a coffin...


... you will be assimilated
erm respect to prove the person is finally gone, to know if it has been tampered with you never heard of burke and hare to body snatchers of scottland,
If you're so smart, why did you think this question had meaning?


PS:


I've been to a lot of funerals and I've never seen nails in a coffin. Are you thinking of the old American West? Or just still stuck in the movies?
I don't know, but if JC's coffin lid had been nailed down he wouldn't have resurrected himself. There would go the New Testament (and Christianity would not have been invented). The world would have been a better place.





*drink*
So it's harder for the zombie to get out?





So the lid doesn't fall off when it's being lowered?





I don't know, is this a trick question?
I think its a precaution to keep it from accidentally popping open during the lowering process.
What is this? 1870?


Casket lids haven't been nailed down for quite some time now.
Fundies if you are so smart: Why is it considered necessary to put it in a concrete box AND dump six feet of dirt on top of a coffin???
so the coffin doesnt get opened by anyone


duh
To protect the body from being detected by wild animals looking for food.
Well it depends on how many fundies we can stuff inside the coffin first...if we can get them all in then it will probably take a lot of nails and maybe some duct tape.
ZOMBIES!! Just because I don't believe in god doesn't mean that I'm not afraid of brain-eating zombies.
And why is digging up graves in my own country considered grave robbery and doing it abroad considered archeology? Eh? Eh?