[quote=Lucian]
Tradition is great and all, but we didn't have the study of psychology for six-thousand years.
[/quote]

People were dumb before the -ology suffix was invented. Idunno. I'm pretty sure we were all thinking about thinking for as long as we've been human beings. It's basically the human condition. I'll grant you, just cuz we've been doing the funeral thing since forever, doesn't necessarily mean that's automatically the best way. But it does probably mean that most people [i]think[/i] it's the best way, as that's been reinforced every generation since Adam and Eve (or Caesar the ape, or whatever). Hopefully that helps explain the reaction.