Let's say you have an ax. The kind that you could use, in a pinch, to hack a man's head off. And let's say that very situation comes up and for some very solid reasons you behead a man. On the follow-through, though, the handle of the ax snaps in half in a spray of splinters. So the next day you take it to the ax store down the block and get a new handle, fabricating a story for the guy behind the counter and explaining away the reddish dark stains as barbecue sauce.

Now, that next spring you find in your garage a creature that looks like a cross-bred badger and anaconda. A badgerconda. And so you grab your trusty ax and chop off one of the beast's heads, but in the process the blade of the ax strikes the concrete floor and shatters.

This means another trip to McMillan & Sons Ax Mart. As soon as you get home with your newly-headed ax, though, you meet the reanimated body of the guy you beheaded last year. He's also got a new head attached and it's wearing that unique expression of "you're the man who killed me last Spring" resentment that one so rarely encounters in everyday life.

You brandish your ax. He takes a long look at the weapon with his squishy, rotting eyes and in a gargly voice he screams, "that's the same ax that slayed me!"

Is he right?

umm, no, because the axe 'sploded.

There are bands out there that have none of the original band members from when the band was founded, but they are pretty much still considered by many to be the same band.

I'd say he's right.

It could be taken either way, depending on the point of view...

It could be taken as incorrect, since both original axe blade have been replaced. But, then again, it can be taken the other way- since the original axe blade was with the replacement handle, until it was replaced. It could also be concidered the same axe since it was used for the same intention, and/or being of same brand.

Or it could be taken as neither, or both.

So, to his point-of-view, he could be correct.

Just discovered JDATE, eh? I should really re-read it sometime.

.

It is still the same.

I went through it two days ago. It wasn't really that scary, more of the "what-the-christ" feel. After reading it, I felt like everything I had been told was a lie. The parts with Korrok were really ****ed up.

no, it's not the same.

and, with the band theory. it might be the same band NAME but it's not the same BAND. Different people, same name.

same band name + different people -> different band.

for example. All the members from Metallica die (killer whales). And get replaced by the people from Lazy Town. now. according to the theory, metallica is the same.

and even if they get replaced by other people that also play rock it will not be the same because everyperson is different. Now. if you clone them, that's totaly differennt. and since... the handle and everything that was changed on the ax, was (hopefully) an identic copy of the previous one. then yes. it's the same ax.

but then again. he got his head chopped off with the blade which was later replaced, so the virgin blade is not the one that killed him.

anyways.

i go for not the same.

(skinky wrists, please enlighten us : ) )

http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/jdate/intro.html

One of the best reads I have had the fortune of browsing in a LONG TIME.

WARNING: Extremely hilarious in the beginning, turns to "what-the-christ" and according to others, scary, in the middle.

May be TL;DR for a few of the ADD people on this site.

I say different.

Dude dies first.
Handle breaks and is replaced.
Blade breaks and is replaced.
At this point, it's an entirely new axe.
Dude reanimates and sees a different axe. Unless he's looking at the shards of the old blade on the ground.

I wouldn't say scary, per se. It does get very wierd, and a bit hard to follow, after the second 'arc', but it's definately a very funny read overall. I should get the print copy, so I don't have to sit in front of the monitor when reading it.

Perhaps in that odd Platonic (whatever) IDEA way it is the same axe but technically no.

This is more philosophical (actually a classic philosophical question) than a riddle