From Caroline Mortimer at Independent:
Founder insists believers are welcome as well as long as they don’t have religious symbols on their headstones
Apparently, the Church of Sweden will maintain the graveyard.
Josef Erdem, a teacher from Borlänge in central Sweden, first proposed the idea because he wanted people to “decide for themselves what their graves should look like”. More.
If one can’t be buried in the cemetery with the symbols of any “religion,” that suggests that atheism is itself functioning as a religion. Obviously, the atheists will be in charge of what they will allow, just as the Catholic Archdiocese is in charge of what is permitted at the Hope Cemetery in Ottawa.
But anyway, the Americans are way ahead of Erdem:
SALUDA, S.C.—One man’s funeral is the talk of the town in Saluda. 90-year-old Lonnie Holloway was buried in the front seat of his car along with his most prized possessions.
Hundreds showed up from all over to see Lonnie Holloway and his 1973 Pontiac Catalina.
“This day will be burned in our memories for years and years to come because ‘us’ ain’t never seen nothing like this before,” said the pastor at the burial.
Hundreds showed up to Rock Hill Baptist Church to witness his last wish, to be buried in his 1973 Pontiac Catalina.
A recent Gallup study found that “76 percent of Swedish respondents said they were either “not religious” or a “convinced atheists,” highest percentage in world but for China where it might be unwise to express a different opinion.
Curiously, the demographics of Sweden suggest that it will be Muslim some decades from now. Wonder what they’ll make of the atheists…
See also: Atheists blocked Not Ashamed trailer from YouTube for eleven months
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