Thinking Outside the Church
On Tuesday night a couple of friends and I went to see the Body World 2 exhibit at the Franklin Institute. Beforehand one of my companions put me on the phone with his Catholic girlfriend who expressed how distasteful she found the entire concept. I admitted that when I first heard about it, I had had doubts, but that after thinking it over I decided that such an exhibit was not simply gratuitous spectacle, but educational and in a way that could not be readily duplicated with anatomical models. Given that, I have no objections to the bodies being displayed in poses that have artistic merit.
Her objection centered around the “sacredness” of the human body after death. Knowing that I’m an atheist she chose to deny that this position had anything to do with her beliefs, and noted that the human body after death was also held to be sacred by the pagan Greeks and ancient Egyptians. It was interesting and telling that even when trying to think outside of her own religious beliefs, she still defaulted to some form of religion. Recognizing that it would be hard to argue the issue with someone who couldn’t zero out belief in the supernatural, I chose not to pursue the matter and essentially agreed to disagree. She said that she didn’t want to ruin the exhibit for me, which left me thinking that she felt she had won a point in this debate, but I chose to avoid conflict rather than pointedly saying that she hadn’t said anything to ruin it because the argument that a corpse is sacred in other religions too does not address a nonreligious point of view.
She then asked, twice, if it was just out of curiosity that I wanted to attend such an exhibition. This made me think that my friend was laying more responsibility on me than was strictly accurate for this outing, but perhaps he did not want to argue the matter with a scandalized Catholic any more than I did. She was giving me an out, but the fact is to take the out of “mere curiosity” would bring me back into conflict with some of my previous apprehensions about this show in the first place. I again said that it was educational and then repeated myself the second time. I was then able to steer the conversation onto other topics.
It should be noted that if I had any doubts about the consent of the donors or the origins of the bodies, I would strongly object to such an exhibit. As it is, no substantiated allegations have been made against Dr. von Hagens.
In fact, the church to which she belongs has been all over the place when it comes to the status of the body per se. At some times and places, it has encouraged mortification of the flesh. At some times and places, it has left its dead in tombs until their flesh is all but rotted away, and then toss bones into great heaps.
If the Roman Catholic Church truly believed in the sanctity of the flesh, then rules of healthy diet and routine exercise would appear in its Scriptures, in the writings of the Church Fathers, or at least in a papal bull. As it is, its clergy are often chubby, sedentary fellows, who may occasionally puff on a cigar in their chambers.