The Grim Reaper.
The scythe wielding embodiment of death.
A ghoulish cloaked humanoid walking among the living in order to collect the dead and
take them to the afterlife.
Doesn’t sound like a chap I want to party with, although I don’t have to because he
simply isn’t real.
What if he was, though?
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, the channel that likes to answer
a breadth of queries, from history, politics, science, pop culture and fiction…why?
Because curious minds are strong minds.
I am your host Rebecca Felgate and today I am asking What If The Grim Reaper Was Real?
So before we get into this video I want to remind you that halloween is a coming, hip
hip hurray!
You know what that means – an onslaught of spooky videos!
If you have any suggestions as what you would like to see, why don’t you let me know.
Also while you are down there leaving a comment, why don’t you guys hit that thumbs up button
and share this video with someone who needs a good spook today.
Alright Grim Reaper, what have you got!
So the concept of the Grim Reaper dates back over many thousands of years and appears in
many hundreds of cultures.
The Egyptians, for example, put a face to death with the jackal headed Anubis – the
God of Death.
The Grim Reaper as we know today is a skeleton wearing a cloak and holding a Scythe, a tool
used by farmers to reap the harvest, much like old Grimmy chap reaps souls.
This version of the reaper was popularized after the Black Death killed off 40-60 percent
of the population of Europe.
At this point bodies were being pilled in the streets or carried by on carts and people
started imagining death walking among them, as in some ways it really was.
Death is the ultimate difficult concept to get our head around – we only know living,
so to imagine something as abstract as death, which seems so final and unfair, is better
comprehended when someone can imagine it as a thing – a character – coming to take
us away.
So we know where he came from and why he was thought up, but none of us have actually ever
seen the Grim Reaper because, well, so far as we are aware, he isn’t real.
What if he was?
Well…first thing is first, he would become a lot more visible to us as he would be one
of the busiest guys in the world.
There are around 150 thousand world wide deaths a day… while a larger proportion of these
are in problem areas like third world countries, that is still an unfathomable amount of ground
to cover and souls to reap in 24 hours…without a break!
Unless the Grim Reaper is some kind of tireless time traveller then there must be more than
one of him…which leads to the question of whether or not the Grim Reapers are the agents
of something bigger.
Perhaps people would loiter by the dying waiting to meet the grim reaper to ask him a few questions
before he trots off to wherever he is going with the souls of the dead.
EXCUSE ME GRIM REAPER, WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?
That is another question…where exactly is he going and can non dead people see him?
Would we be able to track him and find the portal to the underworld….If the Grim Reaper
was real then that would mean the afterlife must be real and that is a whole separate
can of worms that I am not sure we have the time or breath for right now.
Suffice to say humans will WANT answers….but would we be prepared to deal with them if
they came.
While we are on some grand theological topics, let’s talk about how the Grim Reaper is
often depicted holding a hourglass and he comes for you when, I quote, your time is
up?
If the Grim Reaper was real, would that mean our deaths are already predetermined?
If so, what are the wider implications of that?
If the Grim Reaper is real, does that mean that fate is real?
Does it mean we were all doomed from day one?
So, here is a thought for you – if the Grim Reaper was real, a real guy or walking skeleton…however
you want him…but real…. does that mean that we could cheat him?
Could we cheat death?
I don’t know if you have ever played the Sims…but I have …and it is a constant
battle to try and shut the Grim Reaper out… but he comes anyway.
Some people say in the Sims 4 they have managed to stop him….would we humans do the same…obviously
we would!
Businesses would start selling literal death traps… but would they work?
And If we could stop the Grim Reaper, what would that mean for our burgeoning population?
Or would it mean that people are still dead, but their souls stay on earth rather than
being guided to the afterlife.
ARGH…I am back with the questioning again.
Maybe we need one of these death traps to keep him still for a while so we can interrogate
him.
How long til we ask him why the scythe and cloak, mate?
Ooh…do you think the Grim Reaper has a personality?
What do you think his voice sounds like…deep…right…but would he have an accent….does he have a
Mrs Reaper at home…maybe the Grim Reaper is controversially actually a woman anyway…or
maybe death doesn’t have a gender?
But like… if it’s a skeleton, it must have had a body once, right?
Why is the grim reaper a human skeleton?
Does the human skeleton reap the death of animals or is there be like a little skeletal
fish reaper for dying fish….and a spooky bones only owl reaper for birds?
LISTEN I just have too many questions…
So, what if the Grim Reaper was real?
Well in some ways it IS – The Grim Reaper is the personification of death and of course
death is very much real, we just can’t comprehend it.
So guys, what do you think would happen if the Grim Reaper was real and what would you
say to it if you had the misfortune of meeting?
What question would you ask?
Let me know in the comments section down below.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Life’s Biggest Questions – I am your host Rebecca
Felgate, I’ll catch you in the next video but until then stay curious stay alert and
never ever stop questioning!