Topics about reincarnation are not present in the bible but there are religions like buddism and hinduism that teaches life as a cycle of birth, death and rebirth. The bible states different teaching that we only live once. What do you think about reincarnation and how many times do we to undergo a series of rebirth?
Subscription Note:
Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.
Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.
I don't believe in reincarnation, because there is no evidence supporting it.
The bible states everlasting life, but unlike reincarnation, it's one everlasting life and not a series of rebirths. But as Damanar said, there is no evidence to support it.
Life and death are indeed a mystery. There are also no evidence regarding one life system. I hope these mysteries will be opened to us.
What do you mean "no evidence for a one life system?" We are living in this system, it is the only thing we can be sure that does exist, you and I can interact in it. Whether it is a matrix like existence is irrelevant. It is the only existence we know and we should be trying to make the best of it, instead of constantly making preparations for the next life based on superstition and myth. It is possible there are mysteries after death, but they would be beyond the scope our technologic and biologic senses can measure. Everything that we can sense that humans are simply dies, we cannot "see" any kind of sentience that survives death. So the difference is, we have evidence for our surroundings in this life, anything beyond that is completely invisible to us.
I don't believe in reincarnation or maybe I just don't want to believe in it. I really hope that our time on Earth is just one step in life.
I personally don't believe in this. I know a few religious across the world that preacher reincarnation but to be frank, its a mystery but as @damanar has said, its best you make you of this life you've got at present to the fullest.
I believe reincarnation has got ot be one of the most absurd ideas of an afterlife. Specially when some people link it to reincarnating in other species. There is nothing about this idea that makes any sense at all. But then again that goes for most religions too.
I honestly don't know where religions get the idea that they will be reincarnated or re-birthed for an after life. Their only source is a human who preached that the idea will happen. There is no proof that anyone has or ever will be reincarnated or re-birthed for an after life. It is, as you stated, absurd.
The idea stems from establishing a moral baseline. It is the same concept as heaven and hell. It is a way of explaining theocity and why good things happen to bad people and vice versa. To indoctrinated people, it tells them that there is an over arching force that is always watching them. If they perform immoral actions or think immoral things, even if they are not punished in this life, there will be an afterlife that is infinitely worse for them; of course, the opposite is also true. The concept of the afterlife is similar to karma, in which you are rewarded/punished later in this life.
So, the answer to where it came from is: A desire to institute moral action without supervision.
I heard a great analogy for this not too long ago, with the monster under the bed.
Parents can teach their children there is a monster under their bed at night to make them too afraid to get out of bed.
Caveat: I don't think parents actually teach their kids this, but it is on my list, of things to do, to figure out how this fear is passed around.
I don't really believe in it, but there was a time that I kinda did. That was the time when i was in high school and we had a special report about it. But there really isn't any solid proof that it is real, so I don't think it's real. And how can you prove it? How would you remember who or what you were in your past life, if that even exists?
Reincarnation makes very little sense to me. I have heard many theories on it and i can only say that each and every one sounds more absurd than the last. My doubts of an afterlife are there, but always in a way that means we evolve into some other plane of existence and not recycle back into this world.
I don't believe in reincarnation in the traditional sense. I think life and death work pretty much like everything else in the entire universe. When a tree dies, it decays, and the matter is broken down and absorbed by whatever life needs it nearby. In the same way, kinetic force is dispersed over time as it bombards every tiny atom on it's way, moving them all ever so slightly. In the same way, we die, and whatever energy it is that binds us together will disperse and be picked in bits and pieces up by whatever wants it on it's way out of us.
To think that I, as a whole person, am the reincarnation of one and only one complete person, is highly unlikely considering how *everything* else works here. However, nothing is wasted in our ecological system, so I'm sure I've got some borrowed parts in me! As I see it, I'm more likely to be the reincarnation of the burger I ate last week than Napoleon.
I believe that the afterlife cannot exist without the concept of the soul. The problem is, which part or cell in your body houses that soul? The whole concept of the soul itself is flawed and therefore by extension the afterlife seems absurd.
I like what Epicurus had said ;
" Why should I fear death!
If I am, then death is not.
If death is, then I am not.
Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do ?"
Nope not a bit. It just doesn't make sense. The math is all wrong for one thing.
Reincarnation is the product of human imagination, like all religious beliefs. It's an inevitable consequence of our consciousness. If we didn't think, worry, and produce theories about what happens when we die, it would be totally unnatural. To not think about it would suggest there was something weird, possibly supernatural going on. Inventing baseless scenarios about the afterlife is totally consistent with human evolution. The fact that some people believe it for no good reason beyond the warm fussy feeling it give them, suggests we've still got some way to go.
To set the stage for questioning reincarnation's existence we would first have to assume that each of us are individual examples of the Phoenix from the Flames, repeatedly reborn of the ashes of our demise to live again. Okay, fine, but there isn't the attendant awareness in each of us of it ever happening that supports fact.
In 2009 a story surfaced of a toddler who had vivid dreams of himself as a WWII fighter pilot who died from being shot down. I cannot corroborate anything about the story since its first appearance but, if we are to believe his parents, then we have a very odd manifestation of a phenomena we know nothing of.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1209795/Reincarnated-Our-son-W...
I do not believe his parents. I may not have a rapier wit but I do wield my sense of doubt like a 10 lb hammer.
I'm going to post a somewhat altered version of the reply I gave to the 'Karma' discussion, since the terms are nearly identical but adding a life/death element.
"Remember that the concept of (reincarnation) is a monstrously unethical way to think about things. Imagine a child being beaten or raped. A strictly ethical person would say that this is a tragedy and that the perpetrator deserves to be stopped and 'corrected' (fill in those air quotes with what you will). A person who strictly buys into the (reincarnation) concept thinks that the child must have done something to deserve it, or will eventually, and that the person perpetrating the crimes shouldn't be punished because they'll get theirs eventually."