I don’t believe I have one, so, if the devil is real, he’ll win my soul because of my irreligion. If he exists, and is stupid enough to reveal himself to me, I’ll develop faith really quickly, revile him, and he loses out!
If the cost is really an unlimited period of suffering…what possible benefit could be worth it?
(I just might sell my soul in order to save a loved one’s soul. I could put up with a lot of suffering, knowing I’d spared a family member the same fate. But that’s about it: one “infinite” pay-off in exchange for another.)
Quite a few Spanish legends along those lines; usually what’s used to pay for the soul is some public works. Two that come to mind are the Acqueduct in Segovia (the soul belongs to a servant who is tired of having a very long walk for water) and several involving bridges (one from the province of Girona involves a mother whose child is sick; she needs the bridge to be able to take him to a healer).
There’s The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson; though that concerns a device which sets up the transaction as temporary, but subject to a “law of diminishing returns”. Towards the end, it seems certain that the hero is inescapably off to hell…
I remember an experiment made long ago by some French magazine. Some guy acting serious and looking professional asked random people to buy their soul (and presented them with a contract to sign if they agreed). When he was offering a trivial amount of money (like, say, 10 French francs), he would find many takers. But as soon as he began to offer serious money (say, 50 000 FF), nobody was willing to take on the offer (presumably, people were taking it as a joke if a paltry sum was offered, but were beginning to wonder if the payment was significant).
Well assuming I believed in that sort of thing why would I sell my soul for guaranteed eternal punishment, what like I’ll have 100 years of awesomeness for an eternity of suffering? Doesn’t seem to make much sense.
My thoughts exactly - if word-count is the barometer, most people hereabouts are atheists, and a substantial fraction of those want to make sure everyone knows it.
If I have a soul, it’s not for sale. If I don’t have one, I doubt there is any entity able and willing to buy it.
The only way any answer besides ‘never’ can make any sense is by fighting the hypothetical.
If one assumes that the result of selling one’s soul would be an eternity of suffering and torment, then no one finite lifetime of pleasure and decadence could possibly be worth the trade.
I wouldn’t see the point in selling my soul. If it’s a given that you can sell your soul, then you know you have an afterlife. And the afterlife goes on…well, forever. Knowing that, why would you want to have a few good years for an eternity of suffering? Morality aside, NOT selling your soul is the logical choice.
I’m certain I am damned anyway (I am selfish, lazy, I put the wants of my family above the needs of strangers, I am irreligious or Unitarian [I always get those confused] and I have a history of using people).
I cannot imagine the Devil offering to pay for something He most likely already has a lien on.
I apologize for the double post, but I came up with another reason I am most likely damned anyway.
Given the sheer number of religions and rites which humans have been practicing since we first wandered out of the trees, the odds of my being born in the time, culture and faith that is most pleasing to the Almighty approaches zero. If “Demonstrated Form of Worship” really is 75% of our final grade then we are all fucked.
