# reincarnation - karma-based, tenure-based, or crap-shoot?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-karma-based-tenure-based-or-crap-shoot/124831>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 21, 2002, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-karma-based-tenure-based-or-crap-shoot/124831 "2002-08-21T01:35:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2002, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-karma-based-tenure-based-or-crap-shoot/124831/1 "2002-08-21T01:35:46Z")

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Let’s all assume for a moment that what many millions of believers worldwide say is true - that reincarnation is a genuine phenomenon. Beings die, their souls transmigrate into new beings who are born, live out their lives, repeat.

Would this process in your opinion be based on karma, tenure, or a crap-shoot?

Karma: your good and bad deeds are weighed and you come back either up or down - maybe way up or way down. Tenure: basically, the “Wheel”. Souls endlessly cyling between the extremes of supermen and the lowest creatures, with all stops in between. Crap-shoot: a roll of the dice, complete randomness with all that implies.

Are there others I haven’t considered? I think all three have merit - assuming for a moment, of course, that reincarnation is real.