A LOT more suicide cases probably
That and an increase in size for religions that believe in reincarnation, as well as people probably treating animals kinder or maybe even believing they’ve found a dead family member in a pet
A LOT more suicide cases probably
Lots of people constantly rerolling, waiting to get born into a rich family before committing to a full round of life.
This might depend on what else we know about it. Or don’t know. We know that reincarnation is real, but do we understand the “rules”?
Most reincarnation beliefs include some sort of points system for how you come back. For example, Good people come back better, and bad people become slugs. If it can be confirmed that suicide gets you demoted, there might not be people doing it.
Or, after enough people start rerolling, an official government agency “confirms” it just so they don’t lose their working class.
That and an increase in size for religions that believe in reincarnation […]
Would reincarnation alone still really be a religious element at that point, given that it may just be a natural phenomena?
Well in theory all of the religious elements are not religious elements. We just haven’t demonstrated them to our satisfaction. (which I suppose is the line between bullshit and not-bullshit right there)
Like, if we forgot how to make particle accelerators And the only talk of quarks and leptons was in religious mythology.
More of a natural phenomena, but if they were right about that and others were wrong about heaven/afterlife then some people would trust those religions and distrust the others
Rather than tolerate a painful situation, reroll.
Soul Hunters.
Invented to track down rich people after they die so they can keep their generational wealth.
Also to fuck with poor people.
This would make for a really cool novel/tv series!
Soul Hunter gone rogue
Unless they are reincarnated from rich dudes from the past. You know, you protect your own so they protect you later.
Witch hunts. Innocent people getting punished for what they supposedly did in their past lives.
Oh ya. And probably a hundred other kinds of carryover.
Soul tracking, for property and credit purposes. We’d invent that a week later.
And past life debt collection
Transunion SOUL Score!
Soulkarma ratings agency!
People would stop saying “yolo”.
You son of a bitch, I’m in
People will claim lifestyle regimes to make sure you come back in a better social tier.
Want to reincarnate with a bigger dick? Use herbal supplement Dicksauce twice daily!
Inheritance laws about to get reaaaal interesting
Bring new meaning to the phrase “better luck next time!”. I would also expect some sort of suicidal hashtag trend like #imatryagain
In reality we are all the same one thing that created multiple things and we just engage with ourselves through all of eternity.
Ideally it would mean everyone’s united in improving society for everyone and especially raising minimum standards, when you could end up as anyone.
Depends. Some might just re-roll and hope for a better outcome
Reroll at what point? “Hey, kids, today you’ll learn about resurrection, and what that booth is for”. There could be billions of people with no clue about the rules, let alone trust in how it would work.
And it’s just that much messier if non-humans are part of the cycle. Hundreds of billions of farm animals and semi-domestic species like rats, and all the rest of nature. They don’t get opt-outs.
I would be wondering where all the extra people are coming from.
You know how there’s a whole lot fewer bugs now than there used to be?
that explains why there’s so many bug brained idiots running around!
lol
I think it would change very little. Most people would probably still refuse to believe it. The tinfoil hat brigade would probably insist that it’s a government coverup or a conspiracy cooked up by “the libs”
What’s it shaped like, then?
In some versions of the reincarnation story, you die, you come back as another human, pretty much at random.
In other versions, maybe you’re a human, maybe you’re a better human – which is to say, a higher caste, class, race – or maybe you’re gutter scum and deserve to get stepped on. This sort of version tends to be favored by archdukes and other sorts of shitheads who do a lot of the stepping-on.
In still another version, maybe you’re a chicken or a bug; so be nice to chickens and bugs, because that could be your grandma.
And then there are the funky versions of the reincarnation story, where you probably don’t even end up in this same world at all. If you suck, you get reincarnated as a tortured ghost in a hell dimension. (There are lots of those; Dante had no freakin’ idea.) If you’re awesome, maybe you get to be an angelic being who spends your whole life rapturously singing the praises of the Almighty. Doesn’t that sound fun?
The thought of divine justice never sits right with me.
Like I understand people want to believe that bad people are punished and good people are rewarded. But the nature of “good” and “bad” aren’t ever based on fear of reprisal. Bad people may not fear justice, and even if they do, that doesn’t make them good.
Making good decisions ought to matter as much as the reason you make your decisions.
Any religious civilization invariably falls into the power trap where the leaders and the wealthy modify the rules to suit their whims. A peasant living in an unjust theocracy might feel better believing that their rulers will be reincarnated into a worm, but what good does that do? A worm doesn’t lament it’s pitiful and brief existence any more than the downtrodden lament the sins of their past lives.
Even if it were absolute truth, it doesn’t prevent the bad people making bad decisions, and it doesn’t help the good people being abused by bad people. A good person reincarnated as a king is likely to become a tyrant in their next life, because they remember nothing of their past lives and power corrupts.
Of course, there’s the Buddhist version where the goal is not to be good, but to transcend earthly experience. But the same questions apply. An old ascetic monk might come back as an eagle or an alcoholic or a backup dancer for Katy Perry. They believe they will continue to ascend, but they are taught very few ever reach nirvana, and there are far more people who are not bodhisattva.
So why does reincarnation matter at all? What difference does it make if you face oblivion or a mind-wipe and reboot as someone entirely new?
In the version where you come back as a chicken or a bug… how do you work your way back up? By being a reeealy kind and thoughtful chicken?
Edit: Or who’se to say, I guess. Maybe the bug is the most sublime existence and that’s the “top”.
Probably a Matrix situation. Self-cultivation brings superpowers. Kindness is just a visible facet of that cultivation
I remember a thing from Greek mythology.
In the afterlife you encounter a forest. The trees are people, locked in eternal catatonia, each a private hell inside his own mind.
Depends a lot on how reincarnation works. Is it random? All animals or just humans? Are memories preserved? Etc. Also, how would it be scientifically proven?
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