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?
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.