# Reincarnation Superstition **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 20, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022 "2025-11-20T20:52:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/21 "2025-11-20T23:24:22Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Why does no one ever consider the legal issues surrounding reincarnation? > > If It’s still me, My impression of the Buddhist and Dharmic versions of reincarnation is that the whole point is that you lose your identity entirely and your essence– whatever that may be said to be– is recycled. Of course that’s entirely contradicted by people claiming to remember past lives, plus I’m extremely unclear on what a soul may be said to be if you take away identity and memory. > [@solost](#): > > “worship me and my son and follow all my commands, however arcane and possibly irrelevant to modern life, or be thrown into a lake of fire for all eternity”. I think most theologians would say that’s a gross oversimplification of Christianity. My late wife had an unusual set of beliefs: she was a devout Christian and yet believed in reincarnation. Her justification was that she was sure that people would get any number of chances to “get it right”. She said that her fondest wish was to be done with this world and get off the wheel. To the extent I’m sure of anything about religion and the afterlife, I think she succeeded. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/22 "2025-11-20T23:25:12Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > If reincarnation is a thing, and people come back as other people, why is the human population growing all the time? One of my sisters, after an elderly friend died on the same day that one of her other friends had a baby, declared that when one dies, another is born as if cause and effect. She didn’t have an answer about the increasing population because that doesn’t fit with her fanciful life view. As far as everyone’s past life being someone famous - from the movie _Bull Durham_: - [Crash Davis](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000126/?ref_=ttqu_qu): how come nobody ever says they were Joe Schmo? - [Annie Savoy](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000215/?ref_=ttqu_qu): [_still laughing_] Because it doesn’t work that way, you fool! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/23 "2025-11-20T23:30:29Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Deli Lama, who reincarnated as a roast beef sandwich. And then there’s the famous Dallas religious leader, the Dealey Lama. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/24 "2025-11-20T23:52:34Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Deli Lama, who reincarnated as a roast beef sandwich. Daily Lama, the morning-news-show host ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/25 "2025-11-20T23:59:40Z")
problems with reincarnation: … chances are (should it work) you get reborn as bacteria … my rationale: I have more bacteria sitting on my ass than there are people on this planet … and I am just one of 8.000.000.000 people … ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/26 "2025-11-21T00:14:05Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Why does no one ever consider the legal issues surrounding reincarnation? > > If It’s still me, can I designate my reincarnated self as my legal heir? What about any other heirs? Can they contest that, leaving new Baby Me destitute? And if I can inherit, is it held in trust by my current parents until I come of age? > > And what if I was a criminal, in prison? If I die 5 years into a 10 year sentence, does Baby Me get sent to Baby Prison for 5 years? Or do they defer that until I turn 18 (again)? What do they do if I abscond at 17, and go live someplace with no extradition treaty? Ahem. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/p1V3g8z_Hjc/maxresdefault.jpg "Reincarnation Bounty Hunter - World Heritage Posts") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1V3g8z_Hjc) ---
**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:** [November 21, 2025, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/27 "2025-11-21T00:41:37Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Why does no one ever consider the legal issues surrounding reincarnation? H. Beam Piper actually brought it up in one of his Paratime stories. In that timeline reincarnation was a proven scientific fact, which had various social effects. But then somebody found a way to bring out the memory of past lives and suddenly people all over started trying to claim that various things and positions that they had in a past life legally should be returned to them. Mind, the legal aspect was quickly overshadowed an escalation to violence. As for myself, I’ve always regarded reincarnation as effectively the same as having no afterlife at all. I _am_ my memories; if “I” don’t recall them in “my” new life, as far as I’m concerned that’s not me at all. No more than if I was eaten by a bear I’d consider the bear absorbing my nutrients to mean I lived on as a bear. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/28 "2025-11-21T03:44:51Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > H. Beam Piper actually brought it up in one of his Paratime stories I’ll give you two guesses why I brought it up 😀 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/29 "2025-11-21T04:32:57Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > That’s only an objection if the claim is that _everyone_ is the reincarnation of a previous life. Or if every past life was as a human. > [@Lumpy](#): > > I think most theologians would say that’s a gross oversimplification of Christianity. Yes, and maybe that idea would be a bit bigoted, but at least ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/30 "2025-11-21T05:23:44Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > If reincarnation is a thing, and people come back as other people, why is the human population growing all the time? It could be that the growing human population is balanced by the declining animal population. A lot of people are former animals. But if you bring animals into the system, you have to look at the big picture. There are about 8,000,000,000 people in the world. But there are about 500,000,000,000,000,000 beetles. So beetles outnumber humans by a ratio of over sixty million to one. And beetles have substantially short lifespans than humans, so they cycle through reincarnations quicker. Statistically, most reincarnations involve a beetle being reincarnated as a new beetle. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/31 "2025-11-21T05:44:48Z")
That’s because He has an inordinate fondness for beetles. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2025, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/32 "2025-11-21T09:40:05Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It could be that the growing human population is balanced by the declining animal population. A lot of people are former animals. I’ve seen jokes/memes about that before; the theme being that the human population goes up, the animal population goes down by necessity to provide souls for the humans. Since more and more humans are reincarnated animals, we become progressively more stupid and barbaric. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/33 "2025-11-21T10:09:32Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > One of my sisters, after an elderly friend died on the same day that one of her other friends had a baby, declared that when one dies, another is born as if cause and effect. So babies get their souls delivered from a just deceased soul mate the very moment they pass through the birth canal? That would either have implications for those contrieved abortion debates or has not been thought through. But I have the impression you don’t really agree with your sister anyway. One of the problems I have with reincarnation (and with souls post mortem in general, like in hell and paradise) is dementia. How come that after becoming progressively more and more stupid they die and become clever again? Were did the cleverness hide during those miserable last years of their previous life? The words stupid and clever are meant as simplifications of a general idea, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/34 "2025-11-21T13:42:43Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > So babies get their souls delivered from a just deceased soul mate the very moment they pass through the birth canal? It looks like you’re baby’s soul is being delivered by [So-ooooooul Train…!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB8PPhQglwo&list=RDNB8PPhQglwo&start_radio=1) Also, it’s an Amtrak Berkshire Flyer with 159 cars. \< ta-Woot! ta-Wooooooot ! \> (Are you sure you won’t select the epidural…? ) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/35 "2025-11-21T13:53:42Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Since more and more humans are reincarnated animals, we become progressively more stupid and barbaric. You know, that’s actually a good point. These New People are, if you consider the whole point of the reincarnation cycle as a means of refining souls via experience, some of the best Animal souls out there, but also some of the worst Human souls. This could explain so much of the last century, when human populations exploded far above what we ever had before. I mean, what happens when a new Human baby is born, but there’s no Animal soul available that meets the current threshold of moving up the reincarnation ladder? Well, like any bureaucracy, if no candidate meets your criteria, you lower the criteria. We start getting second-rate Animal souls put in Human bodies, and everything gets worse. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/36 "2025-11-21T14:12:23Z")
When I was about 13, my best friend insisted the girl he had a crush on was the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe because she was born on the same day Monroe died. He became so obnoxious about it, I spent considerable time in the library researching who died on my friend’s birthday: Adolf Eichmann. I never told him. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2025, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/37 "2025-11-21T14:59:32Z")
Spider Robinson wrote a story, _Rubber Soul_ where it turned out that cryogenically freezing someone counted as “death” and when you defrosted them there’d be a new person in there. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/38 "2025-11-21T15:23:06Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > One of the problems I have with reincarnation (and with souls post mortem in general, like in hell and paradise) is dementia. How come that after becoming progressively more and more stupid they die and become clever again? Were did the cleverness hide during those miserable last years of their previous life? The words stupid and clever are meant as simplifications of a general idea, of course. I think the counter-argument is that a person’s soul and their intelligence are two different things. Mental abilities can decline in old age, just as physical abilities can. But a soul is a separate thing that remains undiminished. Of course, this argument assumes that a soul exists in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/39 "2025-11-21T15:28:35Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But a soul is a separate thing that remains undiminished. I have the impression that you have never seen a terminally ill alzheimer patient: the “soul”, even assuming that such a thing exists, is extremely diminished. When I wrote that the words stupid and clever are meant as simplifications of a general idea I thought it was clear I was not talking about being smart, but I did not express myself as clearly as I thought, it seems. Terminal dementia takes away your humanity, soul, spirit, geist, call it what you will. How it comes back in the next reincarnation is a mistery to me. That is why I don’t believe in reincarnation. Or in souls, except as metaphores. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022/40 "2025-11-21T15:30:22Z")
Reincarnation (and karma) serves the same purpose heaven and hell do: it lets us pretend justice is ultimately served, even after death. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reincarnation-superstition/1025022.md?page=3)