Reincarnation

Discuss philosophical questions regarding theism (and atheism), and discuss religion as it relates to philosophy. This includes any philosophical discussions that happen to be about god, gods, or a 'higher power' or the belief of them. This also generally includes philosophical topics about organized or ritualistic mysticism or about organized, common or ritualistic beliefs in the existence of supernatural phenomenon.
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Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
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Reincarnation

Post by Eckhart Aurelius Hughes »

What do you think about reincarnation? Do you think that belief in reincarnation compatible with most major religions or not? Do you think a non-religious person can believe in reincarnation?

I guess it depends on how we define reincarnation. In some ways, we get memories (i.e. information and knowledge) passed down to us both genetically and culturally, most notably as instincts. But most people think of reincarnation as more metaphysical than that.

What do you think?
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Post by anarchyisbliss »

In my opinion every creature on the planet has a soul even inanimate objects, when the creatures body dies, the soul lives on and "sits" in this "waiting room" for soul to be recycled into other life forms just coming into existence or it goes to heaven but personally for me i don't believe in hell in a conventional sense where souls are tortured so i think they just sit and wait almost like a lottery.
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Post by jrscott »

I think reincarnation without God is defensible. One might ask how a soul can leave one deceased body and enter another, but this seems no more problematic than the idea of a soul attaching itself to its first body, a notion which any dualist must accept. Of course, not being a substance dualist, I don't believe in reincarnation. But I don't think belief in int requires God.[/quote]
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Chosen-one
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by Chosen-one »

There are many evidence of Reincarnation both in western and eastern world. People who remember their past live. Youtube it.
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by Vijaydevani »

Genetics is not really reincarnation. Reincarnation implies rebirth of the same person. Seems to me like a pointless phenomenon even if it does exist though it seems highly unlikely. And I simply cannot understand what the soul does. It just sits there in the body doing nothing and gets born over and over again. I haven't heard of a more ridiculous occupation ever.
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by LuckyR »

Reincarnation from a statistical standpoint is like a pyramid scheme in reverse. There aren't enough prior people to account for the numbers of current residents of the planet.
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by Felix »

LuckyR, Reincarnation is supposedly a progressive process, you've got life on many other planets, transmigration from lower to higher forms of life, and those who graduate and get off the rebirth merry-go-round. Due to the difficulty of counting souls, statistical analysis is very challenging.
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by LuckyR »

Felix wrote:LuckyR, Reincarnation is supposedly a progressive process, you've got life on many other planets, transmigration from lower to higher forms of life, and those who graduate and get off the rebirth merry-go-round. Due to the difficulty of counting souls, statistical analysis is very challenging.
Well, based on your post, making stuff up seems a lot more "challenging" than statistics.
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Felix
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by Felix »

Is that a compliment, LR? I can't tell.

I didn't make that up though, it came straight from the Akashic records - with full stereophonic surround sound.
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by Renee »

I don't believe in reincarnation but claim that with our present body of knowledge, it is possible, both with or without the intervention of a real or invented god.

You see, my reasoning goes like this: We know practically nothing about the soul, but its very highly probable existence, and its obvious attachment of one soul for every one individual.

Beyond this -- nada. So any belief is valid, not for the evidence presented, but for the lack thereof.

This might change over time. Maybe.

In the turn of the century - 1800s to 1900s - there was a scientist who measured the weight of dying sheep. He noticed a 20 g (one ounce) fluctuation in their weights around the time they died. This meant to him, that souls exited the sheep's body as it died, and others, seeing a live body, "tried it on for size", so to speak, and entered and the quickly exited again when they realized what they got into.

So this was one tested theory that linked soul to a physical quality - mass. Unfortunately this scientist's measuring instrument was calibrated so that 20 grams was below its discerning sensing capacity. And there have been no more experiments on this that I read about. I repeated it, and got into the same problem as the original... the measuring instrument did not discern under 1/1000s of the entire weight measured.

However, if one assumes (at this point fantastically, not on evidence) that soul has mass... then... perhaps Black Matter or Black Energy is made of soul material. That's what gives the extra, undetectable-of-source, weight to our universe.
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by LuckyR »

Felix wrote:Is that a compliment, LR? I can't tell.

I didn't make that up though, it came straight from the Akashic records - with full stereophonic surround sound.
To me the glass is always half full, therefore I never insult people, least of all on this Forum. I guess whether stuff is made up or not depends on whether "cuz I said so" qualifies as "proof".
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by Sy Borg »

Imagine it. Starting out entirely ignorant and having to go the entire sh1tfight all over again. The childhood confusion, teenage angst, twenties anxiety and thirties disconnection and dislocation - having to go through all the same kinds of trials and pains to provide all that hard won knowledge and character depth which is purportedly pointlessly lost to the world completely after death. The new blank slate must once again, having seemingly gained almost infinitesimal benefits from the previous outing. No matter how "good" they were in a previous life they still must burn and suffer and strain and struggle and grieve and cry and writhe in agony all over again - and again and again.

Compare the above with the "lights out" notion that we disappear entirely at death. The game is over, bringing an end of cause and effect as far as you are concerned. No more pain, loss, grief or no worry, just effectively falling into an endless dreamless deep sleep without ever being woken by an alarm or the need to pee.

Yet those who believe in reincarnation tend to be told they are engaging in wishful thinking :lol:.
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Felix
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by Felix »

Renee: We know practically nothing about the soul, but its very highly probable existence, and its obvious attachment of one soul for every one individual.
There is not agreement on the latter, i.e., one soul per customer, could be one per conscious species, so humankind could have a collective soul that holographically "reincarnates" in individual bodies.

Re: measuring the mass of the soul after death, one would have to know exactly when the soul left the body. Occultists say it is a slow process that can take hours or even days.
perhaps Black Matter or Black Energy is made of soul material. That's what gives the extra, undetectable-of-source, weight to our universe.
Good premise for a sci-fi novel: evil genius breaks into the dark energy soul vault, steals the souls and holds them for ransom. Sort of Faust in reverse, instead of buying your soul, he'll sell it to you. Talk about a hard sell though....
Greta: The new blank slate must once again, having seemingly gained almost infinitesimal benefits from the previous outing.
Why assume the development is always infinistesimal? There may be momentous leaps of growth in some lifetimes.
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Sy Borg
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by Sy Borg »

Felix wrote:
Greta: The new blank slate must once again, having seemingly gained almost infinitesimal benefits from the previous outing.
Why assume the development is always infinistesimal? There may be momentous leaps of growth in some lifetimes.
I wondered about that before writing and decided to stick with "infinitesimal". Let's say that one achieves significant personal growth during life that is not lost death but carried over to the next life, reducing the number of mistakes made. Even so, that unfortunate reincarnated human still has to fight his or her way through all the developmental hurdles, and re-learn so much that was learned last time.
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Re: Reincarnation

Post by Renee »

Felix wrote: Good premise for a sci-fi novel: evil genius breaks into the dark energy soul vault, steals the souls and holds them for ransom. Sort of Faust in reverse, instead of buying your soul, he'll sell it to you. Talk about a hard sell though.....
Very imaginative... and workable.

I suggest, if you are a reader, a wonderful little book by Terry Pratchett, "Feet of Clay". He masterfully deals with the delicate and intriguing matter of inanimate objects acquiring an identity, a self, a soul. He mixes in irony and humour as well, whereby a religious cult purports to be an expert on matters of the soul, and wants to convert people to its faith, and they go door-to-door as their religion dictates, to proselytize; but they never convert one single soul.

Then come these individuals, and these do NOT take their soul for granted. Very moving writing. And the religious nuts try to push their beliefs on these, who are just tasting and trying on their souls, but instead of a blank and blase, jaded overall rejection that people give them, the new life forms give them thoughtful, very probing answers, or questions, and they reject the religious nuts meritfully. A wonderful little book. One of my favourites, although it has many boring parts. It also contains a math conundrum which I haven't been able to solve yet.

Careful: Pratchett is a leftist writer, which agrees with me, but many American souls reject his type of sentiments.
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