> Have I mentioned that I’d be happy to loan you money for your startup’s cashflow issues, with deferred interest, secured only by your immortal soul?

Well I'm atheist, so I don't believe in souls. I guess I'll ... take the deal?

Which brings up another question - is selling something for material gain that you legitimately believe doesn’t exist fraud?

I’m imagining the court precedent in this particular case would be delicious.

Also, this is funny [https://www.catholic.com/qa/is-it-possible-to-unsell-ones-so...].

I recall when eBay had to face that question. Their conclusion:

* If a soul does not exist, it's not a valid eBay auction.

* If a soul does exist, it's a body part, and forbidden from selling on eBay.

I could poke some holes in their ontology, but I thought the conclusion was very clever.

That was such a cop-out. Souls are part of the person, but their whole deal is not being part of the body.

Are we talking European souls, south west Asian souls, or East Asian souls?

I’m pretty sure Daoist, Buddhist, or Hindu souls are not sellable conceptually in the way European souls are. One of those times when ‘無門關’ (mu-koan) might be the right answer. Not really a thing, in the western concept anyway. Anymore than it’s possible to square a circle, or calculate Pi from a line.

Maybe that’s why European cultures have been taking over the world? We were able to sell our souls to the devil?

Looks like Jews don’t have a concept of selling ones soul anymore than Hindus. [https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1093498/jewis...].

Muslims seem divided on the topic (among many others), with a pretty solid ‘western’ type tradition of ‘you bet, but you’ll regret it’ to a similar type view of the Catholics near as I can tell (no, and you’ll be forgiven if you get back on the right path).

I guess it behooves one to familiarize oneself with something one is willing to take as collateral, eh?

P.S. If you’re an atheist who doesn’t believe in a soul, then clearly you’re a soulless bastard. ;)

(Leaving out the extremely wide variety of African and various covered regions indigenous peoples Soul-concepts for brevity).

This goes somewhat deeper than you might expect. "Literal" spells are for sale on e.g. ebay, and presumably authenticity/belief are managed like reputation?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/bn_7023443545

As long as you are open about it and the other side is fine with that, it's not a fraud from your side.

How much money and how deferred? If you're willing to wait until after I'm dead, we can talk.

This sounds like an SCP waiting to be written.