Dosn't the idea of reincarnation seem just as illogical as believing in heaven & hell?

Question

As I cast off the shackles of christianity and explored other faiths along the road to atheism, I could never really go along with the idea of reincarnation either.

The mind is the result of electrical impulses and chemical reactions within the architecture of the brain.

Alter any one of these, and the mind is altered.

Remove the electrical energy from the chemistry and the brain, and all you have is energy.

Do people really think it's reasonable to suggest that this energy will magicly find it's way into a new life at conception?

......or is it later in pregnancy?

Isn't it all just a bit too illogical?

And isn't it illogical to suggest that this energy may merge with some greater collection of energy that somehow links itself with living beings?

param.........sorry, but matter can be converted to energy.

Answer 1

Yep. If there was "energy" that left the body it would be detectable. Science has looked and it just isn't there.

That makes reincarnation just another way of deluding yourself into thinking that you don't really have to die.

Answer 2

You're taking things too literally. The soul is not electrical energy, it doesn't have an existence in the physical world.

However, I agree with you about reincarnation. Reincarnation to me seems illogical, because it essentially says that two persons can be the same person. Everything about everyone's personality is unique, so if you strip the personality from an individual, and say that's only temporary, what are you left with? The soul becomes meaningless, and we have no core self. It would be more consistent to be an atheist.

The only way around this is to say that their "important characteristics" would be the same, like moral beliefs, etc, But how do you distinguish between important and unimportant characteristics? It seems as arbitrary as the creationist's idea of different "kinds" that can't evolve beyond their designated "limits".

Answer 3

I agree it seems illogical, and is definately improbable according to what we know so far about energy and the brain. But, it would be remiss of me not to point out that there is still much about energy and our brains that we don't know yet.
Reincarnation is not an easy subject to study, outside of mythology. However, I have seen a very compelling documentary about a woman who had many recurring dreams about an old cottage and children that were hers that she'd never seen before. This woman underwent past-life regression through hypnosis and came up with some names of people and places includeing the one that would have been her own name. Then she looked up this person and found out that she had died young and left several small children behind. The picture they showed of this woman looked almost exactly like her. So, she went on a trip to where the old cottage was, and found it, then looked up the children, now all very old. It was amazing because they seemed to recognise her right away and accepted her as their mother reincarnated. Several of the old siblings didn't know about eachother until all of this, because of being seperated after their mother's death.
This program I saw has been the only bit of compelling information I've seen in favor of reincarnation. But it was VERY convincing, and presented in a non-religious way.

Answer 4

Not if cellular memory turns out to be an actual phenomenon. Especially if it is holographic.

This idea has its roots (AFAIK) in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. Modern thinking incorporates quantum theory as well, to explain how energy states (i.e. experience, in physical terms) can leave an imprint/ information on atoms. I saw a study awhile ago that thought that information was holographic -- as if it contained a 3-D image rather than a single data point -- which is really fascinating.

So our experiences alter our cells at an atomic level. Those cells break up. They recombine to form a new being. But what if some of that atomic level information can impact on the new being? What if a traumatic death left a strong enough imprint? Or a highly trained person like the Dalai Lama was able to do something similar intentionally?

I'm not saying that I believe in it, just that physics is showing us things we would have thought impossible. Enough that I'm not ruling anything out. ;-)

Answer 5

I discovered approximately the two, regardless of the indisputable fact that it truly is tough to % what to have faith in... using fact, i like the way i'm, and that i do no longer % to be somebody else as quickly as I die even however I won't remember my previous existence... probable Heaven/Hell. i don't have a faith, yet i'm no longer an atheist the two. Ha ha, I appreciate all religions! I variety of have faith in reincarnation greater effective than Heaven/Hell, yet too undesirable as quickly as we die, we don't have a call huh? =] ~ Karasu Kaguya

Answer 6

Why or how or wherefrom do you think new life is taking place? You accept that we are driven by energy. You also know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed (that is basic physics for you). So what happens to the energy that leaves the body? It is recycled in a newborn. Who put the energy in the first place? Do you think you have the power to create energy? If that was possible scientists would have been able to make robots with self-created energy........

Answer 7

No, its logical (in my humble opinion) Just ditch the idea of a "soul".

It is simply another name for the physical cycles present on earth. The nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen cycles are simply means by which such matter is recycled, and the death of such a creature with atoms present in its body gets those atoms recycled back into the environment, which leads to the possibility of new life (for trees, worms, bacteria and the like)

That's the Buddhist idea (in my understanding) of reincarnation, not sure about the rest of them though.

Edit: What does everybody think our bodies are? Do they think that life is special and made out of some super-special substance? We are biological "sentient" machines, made out of ENERGY (atoms and the like) that gets recycled after we die (and during our lives mind you, old cells are always dying). Our deaths lead to the birth of other creatures that use what we were once made of to dependantly exist themselves.

Answer 8

I am a Witch and I believe that when I die I go to a place we Wiccans call The Summerlands...
The ancient Greeks called this place Hyperborea...
My soul will be added to the pool of souls awaiting rebirth...
This is where I live in between incarnations, I have my own space and everything I have ever owned, every animal I have ever owned and loved is there...

This is not mainstream Wicca here but I also believe that the Universe is multidimensional...Apart from the infinite # of Planets I could be reborn onto, there are also the infinite # of realms / dimensions that our soul can reside in...
Blessed Be... )O(

Answer 9

The only way I could reconcile reincarnation was through the law of conservation of mass/energy. Anything mystic or spiritual about it rings just as untrue as any other afterlife paradigm.

Answer 10

I've always found the idea of any after-life sorely delusional. But then, I'm happy to rot and provide entertainment for all the bugs and worms when I croak. It seems fitting, almost poetic, considering how many creepy-crawlies I've ushered out of the house rather than smash.