# Well I read some of your topics and this comes to mind
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 2, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273 "2015-10-02T16:19:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/21 "2015-10-02T23:46:08Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#):
>
> . . . Up onto the curtains and then the ceiling and eventually the whole neighborhood.
Philosophy meets civil engineering. Engineering wins. Insurance rates go up for everyone.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/22 "2015-10-03T03:12:08Z")
I’m pretty materialistic in my beliefs, but I hold on to a perspective that [Neil DeGrasse Tyson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D05ej8u-gU) expresses beautifully.
When I die, my consciousness goes away. But what made me up doesn’t. My proteins, my water, my atoms–they just gradually join into new patterns. The pattern that was me changes.
I once was stardust. I will be stardust again.
It may not be practically useful knowledge, but it’s cool as fuck.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/23 "2015-10-03T03:26:14Z")
There is no afterlife. None at all. After death is utterly indistinguishable from before conception. Any belief to the contrary is nothing more than wishful thinking. That’s just the way it is, and pouting about it ain’t gonna change it. So enjoy the life you have now.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/24 "2015-10-03T03:27:25Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> I once was stardust. I will be stardust again.
As the Catholics would say on Ash Wednesday: Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/25 "2015-10-03T03:43:38Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> . . . When I die, my consciousness goes away. But what made me up doesn’t. My proteins, my water, my atoms–they just gradually join into new patterns. The pattern that was me changes.
>
> I once was stardust. I will be stardust again. . . .
You may bury me…but you will inhale me and I will exist in your body! Billions of molecules of mine are, even now, incorporated in your body! I am in thee, and of thee! We are all each other! Universal cannibalism!
(So, brush yer teeth, would’ja?)
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/26 "2015-10-03T03:46:09Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> You may bury me…but you will inhale me and I will exist in your body! Billions of molecules of mine are, even now, incorporated in your body! I am in thee, and of thee! We are all each other! Universal cannibalism!
>
> (So, brush yer teeth, would’ja?)
That’s truer than you think in Bangkok. When they’ve got the crematoriums cranked up.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/27 "2015-10-03T04:27:22Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#):
>
> Since this will probably spark a debate, I’ve moved it to Great Debates.
At the risk of kicking this can down the road, it looks more like IMHO, to me.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/28 "2015-10-03T10:51:52Z")
Next stop . . .
Marketplace. Sell your soul if you have one.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/29 "2015-10-03T11:58:11Z")
Upon death, we become a bag of fertilizer: nothing more.
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### Author:  [@brovolone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brovolone)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/30 "2015-10-03T12:17:02Z")
When we die we die.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/31 "2015-10-03T15:21:41Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> Upon death, we become a bag of fertilizer: nothing more.
That sounds like a bunch of shit.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/32 "2015-10-03T15:39:05Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> You may bury me…but you will inhale me and I will exist in your body! Billions of molecules of mine are, even now, incorporated in your body! I am in thee, and of thee! We are all each other! Universal cannibalism!
>
> (So, brush yer teeth, would’ja?)
I grok!
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### Author:  [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/33 "2015-10-03T19:50:14Z")
ok…good, lots of voices in here
but no colors, no size excess, not too many smilies…
Hope that is the only thing I do wrong!!
Kayaker: I dont like the C word anyway…can I smile here?
Quicksilver: Most likely
Donald Rump: yeah I thought that too until…
As far as my belief…and we are talking beliefs and not knowing what happens until I die, the light you see at death. its you being born again…
course you dont know who you were in a past life but…I dont want to be underground when I am dead so please dont bury me!
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/34 "2015-10-03T20:08:52Z")
Reincarnation was given a nifty science-fictional treatment in the story “Plutonium” by Arsen Darnay. He turned it from a theological/mystical affair into ordinary biophysics…and also wrote a codwolloper of a moral exploration of the implications.
As a moral system, reincarnation has the flaw of separating knowledge of the action from its punishment. Say I’m the reincarnation of a Nazi war criminal, and my crummy life and poor health are the punishment for that. But I don’t know it! I have no way to know what I did wrong! Proper moral training entails knowledge of our responsibility for our actions.
Also: while most of us would take the position of being kind to the poor and ill, there have been some who hold that it’s proper to be cruel to the lowly, because that’s part of the punishment entailed in their reincarnation as poor people!
As a moral system, it’s poorly thought out.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/35 "2015-10-03T20:15:28Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> Also: while most of us would take the position of being kind to the poor and ill, there have been some who hold that it’s proper to be cruel to the lowly, because that’s part of the punishment entailed in their reincarnation as poor people!
That’s the [Dogbert version of Karma.](http://40.media.tumblr.com/465ddd1d69fa43d6c7af843d7b9f086c/tumblr_mq7i9s4gh21qewacoo1_500.jpg)
[QUOTE=Dogbert]
I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it.
[/QUOTE]
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### Author:  [@Plumpudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumpudding)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-read-some-of-your-topics-and-this-comes-to-mind/733273/36 "2015-10-03T20:57:30Z")
Well I don’t know. My best guess(and hope) would be nothing.
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