Comments | the_gneech: You Only Live an Indeterminate Number of Times

the_gneech

You Only Live an Indeterminate Number of Times

Jan 28, 2016 09:23

In my thoughts about reincarnation/past lives topics, I keep coming back to this story from Ian Stevenson:

"When I first went to India, I met with a swami there, a member of a monastic order. I told him about my work and how I thought it would be important if reincarnation could be proven, because it may help people to lead more moral lives if ( Read more... )

reincarnation, deep thoughts

Comments 8

bailiff January 28 2016, 14:36:53 UTC

Coming from a place where "reincarnation is a fact", my personal observation is: assholes and scoundrels behave like they do because they have NO INHERENT BELIEF IN REBIRTH OR KARMA.

Just because those beliefs are part of the local religious establishment doesn't mean 100% of people will buy into them. :3

the_gneech January 28 2016, 14:52:19 UTC

Makes sense!

-TG

rowyn January 29 2016, 03:13:34 UTC

Mmm. I think you do get variance in the "scoundrel" quotient, but it rises from societal norms rather than societal religious beliefs. That, is while there's a certain percentage who'll do good because they want to do good, or be creeps because they want to be creeps, the majority of people will do whatever they think everyone else is doing. (Note: not the same as what everyone else is actually doing. Perception matters! And also not the same as what they think it good/right. )

the_gneech January 30 2016, 15:35:28 UTC

I remember a retail training vid that said social studies showed that 10% of people were always honest, 10% of people were always crooks, and that the remaining 80% were "temptable." I don't know the methodologies of such studies, nor how applicable they were to other environments, but I found it an interesting observation nonetheless.

-TG

rowyn January 30 2016, 15:57:02 UTC

Yeah, I'm not sure how much of the statistics on this subject are apocryphal. It's certainly one of those things that *sounds* right, though, as a general trend if not on exact figures.

houseboatonstyx January 29 2016, 10:36:47 UTC

Datapoint. When I was young and Christian, I slacked off on everything; why bother? During atheist period I bothered a lot, because there was no one else to take care of the world. Now I'm busy worrying about my next thousand lives.

the_gneech January 30 2016, 15:34:14 UTC

Interesting! :D

-TG

bailiff February 6 2016, 11:00:14 UTC

It sounds like your life got progressively more worrisome. :3