Is reincarnation a mathematically viable construct?

Answer 1

I am an atheist without superstitious beliefs so I find it kind of odd to give a possible argument for reincarnation but here goes.

Suppose reality is infinite and varied enough so we are instantiated an multiple number of times. This is consistent and even perhaps indicated by modern cosmology and certain interpretations of Quantum Mechanics.

Further suppose our identity is determined by our brain configuration. That is the configuration of the neural network which makes up our brain. Note that this saying that if two brains are perfectly identical with identical inputs and processes taking place, it is meaningless to consider them two identities. Of course as soon as the inputs vary or the process differs it is clear we then have two distinct identities.

If both of these rather reasonable assumptions are true, then our consciousness identity exists on multiple brains in the infinite reality.

This is actually a possible explaination for quantum mechanics. Quantum uncertainty may simply result from the necessary uncertainty of knowing which copy of our brains we really are. For example in the famous Quantum Double Split experiment some copies of our brain are local to electrons going through the top slit while other copies of our brains are local to electrons going through the bottom slit. As long as we do not observe the electrons. Those brains effectively perceive reality as a superposition of electrons going through both slits. As soon as we attempt to determine which slit the electrons go through. The brains making the observation differ and no longer correspond to the same concious identity.

When one of the copies of our brains dies, others will not so our consciousness will continue inhabiting other brains. After all a dead brain is incapable of making observations.

Note that as we are dying, our brain state simplifies, We are aware of less and less information. The number of matching brains in the universe would then be expected to increase. Our concious state may well find itself matching another type of being entirely.

While this is certainly not traditional Reincarnation, it is very similar. And Remarkably relies on nothing contrary to known science.

If you wish to read more on these ideas, try googling the phrase "Quantum Immortality".

Answer 2

Not really. For one thing, how'd it get started? What sins were being paid for in the first life? Isn't it like trying to jump out of a bottomless pit? Mathematically, how do you have an infinite beginning and a finite ending point?

What's more, don't most espousing reincarnation deny absolute morality? Yet without it, how does one decide what life one will go into? Isn't an absolute moral code to the universe needed, for if it is relative then there is no fairness to it and why would one want to believe in that? And how could such a moral code be set to the universe without a moral Creator to set it?

Isn't reincarnation simply part of the package deal used in India's caste system to say those on the bottom rung of society deserve to be there for having done bad things in their last life? It seems more then anything to be simply a way of controlling the lower levels of a populace to make them feel undeserving of anything better.

Answer 3

Sure when you consider that there are more than one planet with life on it.

Isn't it a little egotistical to think that god created an infinate universe and only one race of beings.
*smack*
Silly people that think reincarnation is wrong.

In truth there are oveso many souls in existance. 6 Billion + here is just a small drop the bucket

Answer 4

Some people believe that we possess souls/spirits which are essentially trapped energy.
Since matter and energy cannot be destroyed it is plausible to see energy return to a usual state.
I am no mathematician so I do not know if there is a formula for this hypothesis...

Answer 5

of direction, If junior aspect souls are being further, that's achievable. Plus we are operating with the perception that merely one international (earth) contains skill souls. Plus many children died earlier age one as presently as one hundred years in the past. perhaps souls multiply like micro organism. perhaps there are folds contained in the time area continnuum. What if non human beings can come decrease back as human?

Answer 6

No, there are no calculations (that I am aware of). However, according to physicist Frank Tipler's "Omega Point theory" the resurrection of the dead is (I might add that Tipler is not a religious person). His equations can be difficult to follow, but they are quite interesting.

Answer 7

I would argue that it is. Conservation of energy. If you build up enough in one life you start the next one where the first one left off. If you waste your energy you start off where you left off. It explains why some of us have such crappy lives.

Answer 8

Reincarnation:

Definition: The belief that one is reborn in one or more successive existences, which may be human or animal. Usually it is an intangible “soul” that is believed to be reborn in another body. Not a Bible teaching.

Does a strange feeling of being familiar with entirely new acquaintances and places prove reincarnation to be a fact?

Have you ever mistaken one man or woman who is alive for another who is also now living? Many have had that experience. Why? Because some people have similar mannerisms or may even look almost identical. So the feeling that you know a person even though you never met him before really does not prove that you were acquainted with him in a former life, does it?
Why might a house or a town seem familiar to you if you have never been there before? Is it because you lived there during a former life? Many houses are built according to similar designs. Furniture used in cities far apart may be produced from similar patterns. And is it not true that the scenery in some widely separated places looks very much alike? So, without resorting to reincarnation, your feeling of familiarity is quite understandable.

Do recollections of life at another time in another place, as drawn out under hypnosis, prove reincarnation?

Under hypnosis much information stored in the brain can be drawn out. Hypnotists tap the subconscious memory. But how did those memories get there? Perhaps you read a book, saw a motion picture, or learned about certain people on television. If you put yourself in the place of the people about whom you were learning, it might have made a vivid impression, almost as if the experience were your own. What you actually did may have been so long ago that you have forgotten it, but under hypnosis the experience may be recalled as if you were remembering “another life.” Yet, if that were true, would not everyone have such memories? But not everyone does. It is noteworthy that an increasing number of state supreme courts in the United States do not accept hypnotically induced testimony. In 1980 the Minnesota Supreme Court declared that “the best expert testimony indicates that no expert can determine whether memory retrieved by hypnosis, or any part of that memory, is truth, falsehood, or confabulation—a filling of gaps with fantasy. Such results are not scientifically reliable as accurate.” (State v. Mack, 292 N.W.2d 764) The influence of suggestions made by the hypnotist to the one hypnotized is a factor in this unreliability.

Does the Bible contain evidence of belief in reincarnation?

Does Matthew 17:12, 13 reflect a belief in reincarnation?

Matt. 17:12, 13: “[Jesus said:] ‘Elijah has already come and they did not recognize him but did with him the things they wanted. In this way also the Son of man is destined to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples perceived that he spoke to them about John the Baptist.”

Did this mean that John the Baptist was a reincarnated Elijah? When Jewish priests asked John, “Are you Elijah?” he said, “I am not.” (John 1:21) What, then, did Jesus mean? As Jehovah’s angel foretold, John went before Jehovah’s Messiah “with Elijah’s spirit and power, to turn back the hearts of fathers to children and the disobedient ones to the practical wisdom of righteous ones, to get ready for Jehovah a prepared people.” (Luke 1:17) So John the Baptist was fulfilling prophecy by doing a work like that of the prophet Elijah.—Mal. 4:5, 6.
Is reincarnation indicated by the account at John 9:1, 2?

John 9:1, 2: “Now as he [Jesus] was passing along he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him: ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, so that he was born blind?’”
Is it possible that these disciples had been influenced by the belief of the Jewish Pharisees, who said that “the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies”? (Wars of the Jews, Josephus, Book II, chap. VIII, par. 14) It is not likely, since their question does not imply that they thought he was a ‘good man.’ It is more likely that as Jesus’ disciples they believed the Scriptures and knew that the soul dies. Yet, since even a baby in the womb has life and was conceived in sin, they may have wondered whether such an unborn child could have sinned, resulting in his blindness. I n any event, Jesus’ answer did not support either reincarnation or the idea that a child yet in its mother’s womb sins before birth. Jesus himself answered: “Neither this man sinned nor his parents.” (John 9:3) Jesus knew that, because we are offspring of Adam, there is an inheritance of human defects and imperfections. Using the situation to magnify God, Jesus healed the blind man.

Does the Bible’s teaching about the soul and death allow for reincarnation?

Genesis 2:7 states: “Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul.” Notice that the man himself was the soul; the soul was not immaterial, separate and distinct from the body. “The soul that is sinning—it itself will die.” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20) And a deceased person is referred to as a “dead soul.” (Numbers 6:6) At death, “his spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish.” (Ps. 146:4) So when someone dies, the complete person is dead; there is nothing that remains alive and that could pass into another body.
Eccl. 3:19: “There is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies.” (As in the case of humans, nothing survives at the death of an animal. There is nothing that can experience rebirth in another body.)
Eccl. 9:10: “All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going.” (It is not into another body but into Sheol, the common grave of mankind, that the dead go.)

How much of a difference is there between reincarnation and the hope held out in the Bible?

Reincarnation: According to this belief, when a person dies, the soul, the “real self,” passes on to a better existence if the individual has lived a good and proper life, but possibly to existence as an animal if his record has been more bad than good. Each rebirth, it is believed, brings the individual back into this same system of things, where he will face further suffering and eventual death. The cycles of rebirth are viewed as virtually endless. Is such a future really what awaits you? Some believe that the only way of escape is by extinguishing all desire for things pleasing to the senses. To what do they escape? To what some describe as unconscious life.

Bible: According to the Bible, the soul is the complete person. Even though a person may have done bad things in the past, if he repents and changes his ways, Jehovah God will forgive him. (Ps. 103:12, 13) When a person dies, nothing survives. Death is like a deep, dreamless sleep. There will be a resurrection of the dead. This is not a reincarnation but a bringing back to life of the same personality. (Acts 24:15) For most people, the resurrection will be to life on earth. It will take place after God brings the present wicked system to its end. Sickness, suffering, even the necessity to die, will become things of the past. (Daniel 2:44; Revelation 21:3, 4) Does such a hope sound like something about which you would like to learn more, to examine the reasons for confidence in it?

If you would like further information, please contact Jehovah's Witnesses at the local Kingdom Hall or visit http://www.watchtower.org

Answer 9

no it is not