Maybe it does and the queue is so long we just forget about our old life by the time our number comes up

Life sucks?

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

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.

Would it count as suicide anymore?

I'd come back as a butterfly.

Nobody ever suspects the butterflies!

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

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

The short story collection/sorta novel Haunted by Pahlanuik ends with the discovery that the planet Venus (I think? Might have been Jupiter) is essentially an eternal awesome orgy heaven, which everyone will eventually end up reincarnating on when they die. So everyone on earth essentially decides to kill themselves. Stores have to start locking up suicide kits because people will just take them in the store and die before paying.

That entire thing is fucked up. I read it somewhere around sophomore year of high school and existentially traumatized me. There are stories in there that somehow 4chan shock image level in just written words.

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.

There would be reincarnation preachers, coaches, and scammers, promising you an ideal reincarnated life.

Cory Doctorow has a story set in a society where cloning complete with mind restoration exists and is pretty quick and cheap. People make regular backups of themselves and then engage in dangerous activities like mountain skiing and whatnot. I forget which story it is: might be ‘Rapture of the Nerds’.

If it were proven, and you could identify your previous identity, would you be able to claim your wealth and possessions from previous life?

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?

Brb respawning

If any religion with a good afterlife were proven suicide rates would rise.

Might actually lower the suicide rate. Might as well figure out how to come to terms with things. Next life things could be even worse. People commit suicide seeking the peace of non existence. If that were proven not to exist, then many might avoid suicide.

If I could be a bumblebee for 12 seconds I'd do it

Cultists are already kinda like that, even christians that believe in the afterlife. They don't care if they're destroying the environment, because the real life begins after the current one.

What is reincarnation without memory? It's nothing. The same as it is without reincarnation. The same nothing as exists now.

Come on big money, no whammies… awww sheep liver fluke again

Reincarnation into what?

"Hey, if you die in this life, you can come back as a bug that gets eaten by another bug shortly after hatching. And then you can do this for the next 10,000 years until you get lucky enough to come back as something remotely sentient."

Sounds like that shit sucks, man. You have a real pivotal moment in this life to embrace dharma and appeal to heaven for a higher place in the great pattern. I'll admit, I'm not much of a mystic, but I don't think eating a bullet after a night spent guzzling whiskey is what gets you up the ladder.

18 luck 17 strength 18 perception 16 intelligence...

Ahfuckit I'm rerolling it

Christianity made suicide a mortal sin because new adherents kept killing themselves to get to heaven pronto.

Hindus and Buddhists would be dying left and right. Wait, actually, we (Hindus) do believe that if your life's ruined beyond saving, then ending it so your soul can go back to the universe/come back in a better form is a sensible thing to do. At least, we have legends and stories to that effect.

Heck, the Bhagvat Geeta has God saying that killing others or getting killed is not something to be afraid of, since the essence of a being can never be created nor destroyed.

If I had to go through my childhood and resulting alienated adulthood again, I'd try to delay death as long as possible to NOT go through it.

And get chopped up in the bardo to return as a tapeworm? I don't think so, you're supposed to meditate so hard you return as a lotus flower

I don't follow. Is reincarnation not usually effected by the life you lead?

Its hard enough being born Chinese this life

If I die right now, I'd most likely be Indian next...

Oh hell naw, caste system... 😭

(Assuming if its limited to Humans on Earth...

Imagine being a factory farm cow and unable to even conceive the thought to kys)