# If reincarnation were true, would you care ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 24, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-reincarnation-were-true-would-you-care/490538 "2009-03-24T01:17:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-reincarnation-were-true-would-you-care/490538/41 "2009-03-27T04:08:38Z")
So if someone told you that you were adopted or had brain surgery or were mauled by a lion during your first year of life, your response would be “So?” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-reincarnation-were-true-would-you-care/490538/42 "2009-03-27T04:17:27Z")
The first two might give me pause to think, the third probably not, but for all three I would still have no memory of it and so would look at it in a philosophical light. But I look so much like one of my grandfathers that it’s pretty certain the first one would never occur. Not that there’s anyone left at this late date who could make it occur were it even true. ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-reincarnation-were-true-would-you-care/490538/43 "2009-03-27T04:39:04Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > To the people who say it makes no difference because you can’t remember it: Do you feel the same way about your early childhood? Because you no longer remember it, is it meaningless? Do you believe that it might as well have been a different person, that there is no difference between what happened to “you” and what happened to “someone else” at that age? Depends on what you mean by remember. There are lots of things about childhood that I can’t consciously recall, but the experiences undoubtedly add up to who I am today. I don’t remember my first steps, but I still know how to walk. I can’t look back at every instance in which I practiced multiplication tables, but I can still remember how to multiply. There are a lot of subtle things we absorb in our day-to-day life that we only take in subconsciously. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-reincarnation-were-true-would-you-care/490538/44 "2009-03-27T05:11:19Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > In literature, the whole purpose of reincarnation is to allow all kinds of hints from past lives to leak through, messing with your life in plot supporting ways. I think I’d find that interesting. Having a life that comes with pre-installed easter eggs would be like a my own personal treasure hunt. > > There could be past life research clubs. Online past life geneologies. You and your cousin could argue about which one of you is \*really \*the reincarnation of Great Aunt Nell. It could be cool. I recall an H. Beam Piper Paratime story that involved a world where reincarnation was a proven scientific fact. When a method of recalling past life memories at will was discovered, society collapsed into civil war, since suddenly everything older than a generation had multiple people claiming that it was theirs. Including inherited positions of power. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Understander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@The\_Understander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Understander)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-reincarnation-were-true-would-you-care/490538/45 "2009-03-27T16:24:47Z")
> [@mr.jp](#): > > What would the difference be between a tree slug who is you and a tree slug who is not you? One’d be me and I’d be enjoying the sluggy life until I rolled another seven in the reincarnation game. The other is just a slug. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-reincarnation-were-true-would-you-care/490538.md?page=2)