ATHEISTS: do you believe in reincarnation? why?

Question

dear atheists,

all right, you do not believe in god. however, i never heard an atheist discuss reincarnation. reincarnation is largely part of the hindu religion, but it doesn't have to be.

so therefore,

do you believe that you existed as a human being in a past life?

do you believe that the actions you do in your life now will make a difference as to whether or not you will live as a human being in the future, here on the earth?

do you think that what you do in your life today will affect what you become when you are reincarnated (if you believe in reincarnation), what sort of family you are born to, your wealth or your poverty, etc., etc., etc.?

kindly give full answers. i am simply curious. inquiring minds want to know...

Answer 1

Carl Sagan, a brilliant scientist who was an atheist, did not "believe" in reincarnation but left his mind open to the possibility that reincarnation might be true. Quoted from one of his books ("Demon Haunted World"):

"At the time of writing there are three claims in the ESP field which, in my opinion, deserve serious study: (1) that by thought alone humans can (barely) affect random number generators in computers; (2) that people under mild sensory deprivation can receive thoughts or images "projected" at them; and (3) that young children sometimes report the details of a previous life, which upon checking turn out to be accurate and which they could not have known about in any way other than reincarnation. I pick these claims not because I think they're likely to be valid, but as examples of contentions that might be true."

Answer 2

Like all things, the original entity (god, reincarnation) isn't as interesting as the implication. I can believe in reincarnation or not and my life is really unaffected. Truly. Today I don't believe but a week ago I did. Am I more pious now or last week? Would I be more or less likely to save an old lady crossing a street in front of a bus? Sure, if karma and reincarnation do exist my choice (if it is rational - which I doubt) will be affected, maybe, or maybe I arrived at the same hypothetical answer to that same hypothetical situation whether I believed or not.

My understanding of reincarnation is that *I* am not reincarnated, only my karma gets to come back on somebody else's account. It's utterly unprovable and, yes, I hope to leave a good balance of karma. But mostly I would want to live a worthwhile life regardless of whether that karma gets passed along to somebody else. My belief or disbelief doesn't affect anything in this calculus.

Answer 3

No, I used to believe in reincarnation as a theist. After studying the subject I had to conclude, reluctantly, that reincarnation was implausible. This was an important question to me as I was wrestling with the larger question of whether or not there was a god.

First, all of what we call the self appears to be strongly brain-based. Damage the brain and the self changes or ceases to exist (depending on the injury). See http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/ghost.html for a good discussion of this.

Second, NDEs are better explained by brain-based activity at the moment of stress. See "Dying to Live" by Susan Blackmore for more on this. Although there are gaps in the "dying brain" hypothesis, they're not nearly so gaping as those in the reincarnation hypothesis. Moreover, when given a choice between a supernatural explanation and a naturalistic explanation, I have to always choose the natural explanation.

Third, there is no known plausible mechanism for reincarnation to take place. There's no detectable "astral body" or "spirit" that exists outside the physical body.

Fourth, anecdotal evidence in the form of previous life memories has universally turned out to be extremely questionable if not fraudulent.

So it seems to me the weight of the evidence is against reincarnation. Given that, I don't believe in past or future incarnations. I act ethically solely based on this incarnation. There are sufficient reasons to be good and moral in the here and now.

Answer 4

How many knock does it takes to inform people atheists are not an organised group with a common book to tell them the same thing?

Not all atheists believes in reincarnation, not all atheists opposed idea of reincarnation either .... the only common factor is the disbelief in any omni-potent entity / entities.

Moreover, reincarnation theory is not only part of hindu religion(s) ...... read up first, then talk.

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Personally, I believed in reincarnation .... no proof yet, but I have a hypothesis where since energy transference is always occurring and based in scientific studies, there will never be lost of energy, just converting from one form to another form.

So when a person dies, his energy has to go somewhere, it can't just get lost .... but since I still hasn't find a way to prove the energy transference of such thing, I do not go around telling people to believe me :>P.

Answer 5

Well, it's interesting because a Buddhist once told me that there is no proof of the existence of god, but at least there is some proof of reincarnation - i.e. you hear stories of people who remember things from past lives and they had no way of knowing these things except reincarnation, etc.

To me and many atheists, all we want is proof and we will believe. The proof of reincarnation, to my mind, is not yet solid enough, but maybe after more research is done on it, it will be more convincing. I'd like to see scientific research and evidence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation#Scientific_research
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stevenson

Answer 6

Nope. There's no evidence to suggest it.

In fact, the human desire to believe in reincarnation seems to be another aspect of the desire for there to be something more or something more meaningful than a human life. We were all Marie Antoinette in a past life, and we'll all be dancing with Jesus (unless we are a member of a religion that forbids dancing) in the hereafter.

Just because you like the idea doesn't make it true. Indeed, often liking an idea means you should approach it with extra scrutiny.

Answer 7

I believe when I die I will decompose into dirt. I mean I am sure feeling of reincarnation has a logical explaination that hasn't been found yet but one day will. I am happy that when I die, I die I hope as dirt I will do something like grow a rare flower or simply be turned into a diamond by my child.

Answer 8

Nope I don't.

I don't believe I existed as a human being in a past life because I don't believe any of us have lived "past lives".

I don't believe that my actions now will make a difference in my "future lives" because there will be no such thing.

I won't reincarnate.

Answer 9

No I don't believe in reincarnation. You may be thinking of Buddhism, an atheistic religion

Answer 10

I do. I experience a lot of Deja Vu. I sometimes wonder if it is from a past life.
I definetly believe I was a human in my past life, but I haven't quite figured out what kind of life style I lived (rich/poor etc).
I fully believe in Karma, and if it doesn't come around in this life, I think it does in the next one.