But, with Constantine's Chritainilization of the Empire, earth burial had completely replaced cremation except rare instances where the person of death would ask for the cremation. Most people today use cremation as a spiritually holistic event. They believe that the combing of the body and soul (burial) isn't the way that someone should stay when they are dead. They should live on (cremation) separate from the body.
The process of burials can be better than cremation because of some of the following facts. The first reason is that cremation can be an aid to murderers. Once a body has been cremated, it cannot be exhumed and analyzed for poisons. Secondly, The Christian church has advocated burial since its inception. They reserved burning for Witches and other heretics. They exterminated hundreds of thousands of them, mainly during the 15th to 18th centuries. And finally, for those of you who are avid readers of the Bible, the text in the Bible states that cremation is used as punishment and lavish eloquent burials are used as remembrances. Most of the reference to burning of a body in the Bible are instances of: punishment for criminal acts, punishment for improper behavior, killings by Pagans, or destruction of idols and "evil" material "God selected burial at Moses' death." (Joshua 34:6). St. Paul appears to favor burial. In (1 Corinthians 15:35-44), he discusses how God will raise the decomposed body of a believer. The symbolism used is that of planting a seed and having new life rise from the decaying seed.
But I believe there are also facts with cremation that are better than burials. As North American society becomes progressively more secular, it is expected that cremation will gain in favor, and become the normal method of disposing of bodies. A second factor is ecological sensitivity: some people do not want their remains to utilize badly needed land. The number of cremations in North America has increased dramatically in recent years: from 5% in 1962 to 20% in 1992.