“Congratulations on your new baby! We wanted to inform you that there’s currently a $213,950 balance on their student loans due from their previous life. We’ve transferred the debt to their name and their credit is already in the toilet.”
Frankly I think there’s already a gap on this with religious belief. If SO many people truly believe in god and an afterlife, there should be more suicides. Okay, it’s a sin. Fine. But then why aren’t people happier when a relative passes? It’s almost like no one actually really believes this shit at the end of the day.
I’ve always said that if I were to believe that there was an eternal afterlife that entry depended on how you lived your relatively short life on Earth, then why would I waste any time in life doing anything other than securing my chances at the good afterlife. Like if you actually believed that, then wouldn’t you live your life as a model person according to how the Bible says you should? It’s shortsighted to do anything else with your life.
Let’s say this life is all you get: wouldn’t you also do a million things to stay healthy and live longer, which most people do not do?
We invented the afterlife because it’s hard to deal with the fact that life is sometimes nasty, brutish, and short. Death is pretty hard to face too. So we lie to ourselves and each other about it. Simple as that.
If it were proven, and you could identify your previous identity, would you be able to claim your wealth and possessions from previous life?
that would go for debts too, or alleged debts.
Past life crimes bureau.
I read a short story back in college about a woman who helped people remember their past lives. Somehow she gets transported to a universe where reincarnation is completely real and everyone remembers all their previous past lives. Suicide was rampant and the world generally sucked. She somehow transitions to helping people forget their past lives to make the world a better place. I really wish I could remember the title of the story.
For some reason this makes me think of something I read in a junior high English class. A group of surfers is driving to the beach when they drive through a tunnel and emerge into gridlock traffic. They inch forward for hours and it gets really hot. The driver finally flags down a passing cop and asks what the deal is. “Oh, you guys died in the tunnel back there and now you’re in hell.”
The story was called The Jam.
Yeah and get reincarnated as a stink bug, roll shit all day. And since you don’t have sentience you won’t be able to kill yourself again.
Would it count as suicide anymore?
strategic respwan?
Rerolling. As a Civilization player, I get it. I’d be aiming for that legendary start too.
It would depend on how reincarnation works. Do I know I’ll be reborn in a better life? They say the grass is always greener, everyone has problems and perceives others as better off. My old guidance counselor’s husband said that if everyone sat in a circle, wrote down their problems, put them in a hat, and randomly drew other people’s problems, everyone would want their own problems back
It would be a lot like speed runners in games. You just keep resetting until you get a good spawn.
This assumes you don’t get stuck as something that can’t kill itself to re-roll.
I like the idea of Death in the Discworld. You get what you believe in. That’s why some isolated tribes kill evangelist on site , hell only exists if you believe in it.
The monk that believes in reincarnation is always so excited to start again but wishes he would remember more, only remembering his other lives in the time he is dead.
The long desert that Brutha believes in is special when he decides to save Vorbis, and walks it together, even though he is like a messiah and Vorbis should be condemned to suffer his loneliness forever.
I fucking love The Small Gods book so much
Are you kidding me I’m not gonna repeat all the time I’ve already served.
I guess it depends. If you’re eager to get the fuck outta this mortal coil, would having to go through childhood again really be something you’d be eager to do?
Maybe it does and the queue is so long we just forget about our old life by the time our number comes up
The existence of a queue sparks the follow-up question: What happens if something is born while the queue is empty?
Miscarriage?
Donald J. Trump.
Life sucks?
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
I started thinking that it’s crazy that those who do believe in reincarnation always seem to think they are gonna end up back here on Earth. If that shit was real, it would have to be a part of the laws governing the entire universe. Maybe it is real, but nobody on Earth has ever reincarnated back to Earth. They became an alien on another planet trillions of lightyears away.
They became an alien on another planet trillions of lightyears away.
That sounds like an improvement.
Depends on the planet.
If you think fascist are an Earth-only thing, then I want you to meet my good friend “statistics”
If I could be a bumblebee for 12 seconds I’d do it
You can still wiggle your butt and dance, sister!
Oh wait. That’s honey bees. Do bumblebees do anything fun?
Technically reincarnation is for realsies. Your bits and pieces will be used by nature again.
To be even more technical. You are being reincarnated constantly.
We shed skin and cells and those become something else while our own body rebuilds itself constantly from other life.
The only cells in the body that dont change out are neurons and sensory receptors.
A lot of proteins stay forever though. Like bones, teeth, and probably a lot of proteins in muscles. A lot of others I’m not listing.
But the cells themselves are always dying and being remade (except neurons and receptors).
Flesh of Theseus.
Theseus of Theseus
I think about it in a slightly different way.
Once I’m dead, people will keep being born. When I think real hard about it, it’s pretty much the same as reincarnation except there’s no need for some kind of immortal soul.
There’s no functional difference between my experience of being born and someone else’s after I’m dead. In both cases, a new person wakes up inside a meat suit and thinks “this is me.” This is already reincarnation without a hard drive and a rating algorithm.
