# Reincarnation or oblivion? Which would you choose? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 24, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844 "2012-02-24T15:10:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/21 "2012-02-24T23:00:46Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > Suppose you have a lump of metal. You make it into a sculpture. You melt it down. You forge it into a segment of rail track. You melt it down. You make it into part of a wind turbine. Repeat ad nauseum. You seem to have confused whether you’re the shape the metal took when it was the sculpture, or the metal itself. That’s deep. ---
**Author:** ![FlyByNight512](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/82dd89/32.png) [@FlyByNight512](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyByNight512)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/22 "2012-02-25T00:59:57Z")
One more vote for reincarnation, as long as I am somehow changing and growing through the experience even if I’m not retaining memories. My religion does specify an afterlife, but says precious little about it. I really, really, really hope it involves more opportunities to grow and change. Maybe my puny little mortal brain just can’t comprehend it, but staying static for eternity sounds utterly pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/23 "2012-02-25T02:49:12Z")
I will choose reincarnation also. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/24 "2012-02-25T03:00:21Z")
Oblivion. With my luck, I’d either be reborn in Darfur or in the time between my death and rebirth as someone else, World War III happens and I get born into a nuclear wasteland. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/25 "2012-02-25T06:29:40Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > This. Coming back as a different person with no memory of this life, is exactly like oblivion with someone else being born. Doesn’t oblivion imply a state of nothingness; incapable of joy/sorrow? If you are reincarnated-albeit with no memory of your previous existence-you still are living with the same conditions of life: pain, joy, sorrow, happiness-that you were living with prior to dying. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/26 "2012-02-25T06:42:51Z")
Why would anyone want to come back to this fucked-up world? It’ll only get worse. Give me oblivion or give me death. ---
**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:** [February 25, 2012, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/27 "2012-02-25T09:40:29Z")
> [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](#): > > Presumably if you go again this is with a clean slate, so you are not ‘you’ in any real sense anyway, how is this different to oblivion? I agree, and [have said so before](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=511458). > [@If reincarnation were true, would you care ?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-reincarnation-were-true-would-you-care/490538/1): > > I certainly don’t recall any such lives, and my memories are the most important part of what makes me, me. If you could prove to me that I had a soul with past lives, it would be like proving to me that a particular iron atom in my blood once was part of Alexander the Great; mildly interesting, but that’s all. Reincarnation is functionally equivalent to having no soul at all, in my eyes. ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/28 "2012-02-25T09:56:48Z")
Oblivion please. Okay it would be theoretically interesting for the me of now to discover what the future holds. But for the future me to have no recollection and reference to the past me’s experiences. It doesn’t work. Meh! Same shit different shovel. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/29 "2012-02-25T10:49:39Z")
According to this [pie chart,](http://www.nationmaster.com/red/pie/peo_pop-people-population) if I spun it like the _Wheel of Fortune,_ chances are about 40% in favor of being born to a chinese or indian couple. Western, democratic nations make up only a fraction of the world. The odds of being born under an oppressive nation like Iran or North Korea, while low, is a pretty disturbing thought. So, the odds are I’d be asian, with probably a less than 30% chance of being born to poverty, a flip of the coin whether or not I’d be male or female, and chances are low, but still relevant that you might be born with an illness or other malady. …still, I think I’ll spin the _Wheel_ and take my chances, Pat… ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/30 "2012-02-25T12:10:08Z")
Oblivion, it’s the only way to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/31 "2012-02-25T19:37:41Z")
Reincarnation. I like second chances. And thirds. And fourths. . . . . . ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/32 "2012-02-25T20:23:16Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > Lets say, for the sake of a discussion, that when you die you are given a choice between oblivion for eternity or returning to earth. You can not choose anything about your next life (except to be human). You take your chances. Do I get to retain memory of my previous life? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/33 "2012-02-25T20:33:26Z")
Oblivion, no contest. Life is boring at best, unbearable at worst. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/34 "2012-02-25T20:43:29Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Oblivion, no contest. Life is boring at best, unbearable at worst. Apparently you’ve never been picked up off the streets by a strange redhead, given a tall mug of mulled wine, dressed in medieval garb and taken to a midnight showing of _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_ by a bunch of people in armor. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/35 "2012-02-25T20:46:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Apparently you’ve never been picked up off the streets by a strange redhead, given a tall mug of mulled wine, dressed in medieval garb and taken to a midnight showing of _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_ by a bunch of people in armor. I have, strangely enough. It was boring. I already knew all of the call-backs. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jasper\_Kent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@Jasper\_Kent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasper_Kent)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/36 "2012-02-25T23:24:43Z")
If karma counts for nothing and my next lives are random chance, I’ll take oblivion. No pain in that. Reincarnation? Statistically speaking on this planet, I’m likely to come back to more lives of ignorance, poverty, hunger, oppression, disease, and/or misery than otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844/37 "2012-02-26T00:20:15Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Do I get to retain memory of my previous life? After each life, yes. I guess I should have been more clear. Thanks for the responses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-or-oblivion-which-would-you-choose/613844.md?page=1)