What are the arguments against reincarnation?

Question

Don't say "it sais so in the bible".

Also if you are an atheist, I can understand why you don't believe such things.

Let's asume there is a god and that we know it for sure. Then, why wouldn't reincarnation make sense? Or does it?

One's personality is not something you are born with, it gets shaped in time by experiences and everything you live.

The number of people ibcreasing is not a valid argument. I could easely asume souls can come from other places too. My argument wouldn't be valid either, but acceptable

Answer 1

There are no valid arguments against re-incarnation.

This is because re-incarnation fits a particular set of faith models. Faith models seek to use concepts to fill in lack of physical proof's. As soul's are spiritual, and leave no physical imprint unless bound to a body, no physical evidence of soul's can be detected during body manifestation and hence re-incarnation has to be a matter of faith.

You can reason re-incarnation, but you can't build physical argument against it, because re-incarnation is a spiritual phenomena. Like Einsteins constant did for relativitiy, re-incarnation fills the gaps of understanding for theology. All re-incarnation arguments can be answered by reading the 1st 3 canto's of the Srimad bhagavatam. It is online at
http://vedabase.net.


1) Mathematically, this is only one Earth and there are millions of galaxies for souls to inhabit. Just because we have 6 billion people now, doesn't mean we always will have. Conservation of soul's is not necessary, if new soul's are born there are always plenty of life forms copulating in order to provide new bodies. Also most re-incarnation models state that soul's can cross species.

2) There are no Christian arguments against re-incarnation that are valid: The eastern orthodox church even endorses a kind of re-incarnation for unsaved soul's that is mirrored in Catholisism by purgatory. Where Christianity labels extreames such as heaven and hell, eastern religion fill in the grey area's with various levels of world in between hell and earth, and between earth and heaven. Above heaven in eastern religion lies the spiritual kingdom of God.

3) Past life memories are not necessarily physical evidence of reincarnation, they are unexplainable.
Neither is a lack of evidence of re-incarnation an argument against it. By definition, moving into a new brain and body is moving on, leaving the past memories will the old brain structure which housed them behind. Therefore to believe in re-incarnation is a matter of faith. A faith is only as strong as the reasoning underpinning it.

4) There are lots of strange phenomena that occur which are attributed to past lives. This attribution is a matter of faith. People who have recalled memories of the past lives using hypnosis (of which we have been able to find record of) have not turned out to be entirely accurate: Again, the phenomena don't fit our expectations, but that doesn't mean the phenomena are made up in the head. It just means we don't know how to explain them. We know that according to quantum physics there are many theoritical dimentions and many potential universes. Just because a past life memory doesn't fit the earths past, doesn't mean the memory wasn't formed else where.

5) All arguments against re-incarnations are not valid because they tend to pitch one theory or view point that is un-substantiatable against re-incarnation. The merits of one view point based upon faith is not exactly valid argument against another persons faith concepts. All faith concepts are specific to the individuals whom form them.

6) Therefore arguments based upon scriptural interpretation are also a matter of faith, and cannot be used in a rational debate against another faith based concept. The ideas are formed by perspectives, which are all individual.

7) Some people say they believe scripture is the direct word of God. Yet as a teacher, you realize that each one of your students will interpret one of your teachings in a slightly different way. That means they will teach your 'teachings' in slighly different way's. Devotee's of Jesus often took different perspectives upon his teachings and upon the narative of his life. For instance: Thats why Luke and John have different facts relating to the time of Jesus' birth, and the details concerning the crucifixion. An eye witness recollection all depends upon the eye witness's personal interpretation of what he/she witnessed.

Answer 2

The whole reincarnation idea is just really difficult to believe because more people are being born all the time and the world's population is growing. But if souls just die and come back, where are all the extra souls coming from? New ones? And are no souls being enlightened and going to Nirvana? It just doesn't make sense. It also ignores what's essential to people, what makes them who they are. For instance, if you say, "Bob is no the other room, and he has lost five pounds," people might say, "Good for him." What if you said, "Bob is in the other room and guess what? He's a grasshopper." Most people would say, "That can't be Bob, because if there's one thing I know about him, it's that he's human. He's not a grasshopper." Well, reincarnation says that I could come back as a grasshopper. But if that's true, I wouldn't be Bob anymore. I would be a grasshopper. My humanness is an essential part of who I am. Another reason I don't believe in reincarnation is that the evidence for it, things like memories of past lives, can be explained by other means: Psychological explanations, or lucky guesses, or even demonic influence. Lastly, if I become a reincarnated snail, how do I retrieve a human form? By being a good snail?

Answer 3

Common arguments against reincarnation include the following:

(NOTE that I'm not trying to debating the subject. I'm not up for that. I'm just listing the common arguments here.)

1) The mathematical argument. We have more people on the planet than we had years ago, yet there's the claim that every person has a soul. So, as George Carlin said, "somebody must be printing up souls".

2) The usual arguments against "souls" in general: how the next status is truly determined, no physical evidence, psychological explanations for why people want to believe in karma, etc.

3) Arguments that come from conflicting belief about souls (ghost sightings, heaven/hell-like beliefs, etc.)

4) Alternative explanations for things attributed to reincarnation (deja vu, ego projection for the desire to want to be a more exciting person in a past life, etc.)

Answer 4

If there is a soul or some sort of spiritual entity within each of us, reincarnation makes sense.
Part of me likes the idea of it but my rational being knows it's very unlikely.

However if I was a god believer I would latch onto reincarnation cos only having one life makes no sense.
Xians want their gullibles to believe they, and everyone else on the planet, have only one chance at heaven regardless of where you're born (US or Africa or Iran), regardless of level of intelligence (75 IQ or 115 IQ or 145 IQ, regardless of age (1 day, 1 year, 20 or 50 years), regardless of whatever makes us unique - it makes no sense.
The USian fundie think everyone on the planet has the same opportunities as he.

It seems that in a roundabout way I argued for reincarnation, huh? :)

[edit]
The 'number of souls in existence' question can be answered by another leap of faith that animal souls could evolve into human souls.
Hey, I didn't say I believed in it.

Hinduism acknowledges that animals have souls.
There are many reasons that xians justified eating meat.
"Dominion über alles" comes to mind.

Answer 5

There are no evidences for reincarnation.

I am an atheist, however, I believes in reincarnation. Put it this way, in personal view, Since energy cannot be destroyed, when people did, they just convert to another form of energy and revert back to organic form.

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Booby K, personally, I do not see the problems of increasing and decreasing "souls". No one says reincarnation takes places only here on earth. The universe is vast, we do not know what other inhabitable planets are there or which planet just went bust. I don't think souls are made or destroyed, just recycled. You will most probably not have the current personality as it would be a different person. I don't think anyone carries their previous life's personality around either.

But like I say, there is no concrete evidence for it, I just put it as personal belief.

Answer 6

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What are the arguments against reincarnation?
Don't say "it sais so in the bible".

Also if you are an atheist, I can understand why you don't believe such things.

Let's asume there is a god and that we know it for sure. Then, why wouldn't reincarnation make sense? Or does it?

Answer 7

it's difficult to explain reincarnation (I'm for it actually) I mean again I don't believe that when we die that's the end of us and again there are people who claim they've seen ghost and such, those are the lost souls? if there are lost souls then those souls must go somewhere? some remains on earth while others came back to life in another body? There was a documentory on the history channel, I think it was like channel 37 here (In Seattle) anyway If the story was true they said it is and I believe that it was, anyway they talked about this kid who they believe didn't have all his memories erase after reincarnation, because his name was jack jr, his father was jack Sr. however he refere to himself as jack the III people don't understand why, there was one time where his dad bought him a toy airplane (I don't remember the name of the plane but it's one of the war time fighting planes) anyway he said the name of the airplane right away and said he got shot on that plane, he said he die on the plane because he was shot. Then his parents research about that plane and one day they were looking through a historical book about that plane being use in the war and they went through a page of scenery about this location where they use the plane to fight at, Jack saw and said he died there, he said they shot me there and my plane crash and I died. He even said the name of his bestfriend who went with him, (again I don't remember what the name was) anyway so they did more research and find out that during that mission only 1 guy died that was jack (last name something I don't remember) and his bestfriend was the name that little jack said and they found him and the bestfriend tell the story of how jack got shot and died and stuff. So that was very convincing to me, I mean I've always believe in ghost and souls, and that just reassure me of reincarnation. I wouldn't call that solid evidence of anything, but it sures convinced me!

Answer 8

There are none that matter.

Even the brilliant and very skeptical Carl Sagan had a somewhat open mind about reincarnation. As a matter of fact, he wrote the foreward to a book about Dorothy Eady, "The Search for Omm Sety," which is the story of a woman who was absolutely convinced that in a past life she had been the mistress of Seti I in ancient Egypt. She had amazing knowledge about hidden tombs and artefacts in Egypt, where she lived and worked most of her life.

Sagan also wrote, "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 (I don't), but as examples of contentions that might be true."

Answer 9

If you follow western religions (Judaism, Christianity, or Islam) this is completely contradictory to their belief systems. This was more of an idea that spread ed in the eastern religions. Belief in reincarnation is taking that as faith since it cannot be proven just as the western judea religions can't prove what happens in the afterlife but take it as faith. So trying to make an argument for this with people who have other belief systems would be like them trying to convince you not to believe in reincarnation. And besides what is logical to one person is not always logical to another...

Answer 10

[3:185] Every person tastes death, then you receive your recompense on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever misses Hell, barely, and makes it to Paradise, has attained a great triumph. The life of this world is no more than an illusion.
[29:57] Everyone will taste death, then to us you will be ultimately returned.
[29:58] Those who believe and lead a righteous life, we will surely settle them in Paradise, with mansions and flowing streams. Eternally they abide therein. What a beautiful reward for the workers.

Answer 11

If souls are reincarnated into new bodies what remains the same? After all you have a different mind/brain, personality, genetic makeup, perhaps even gender. Seems like two different people, so what gets reincarnated? If the soul is your personal Identity, that is forever lost when you enter into a new body. Is the soul consciousness? If the answer is Yes, I would like for anyone to explain to me how can you separate your personal identity from your consciousness. As soon as you say "I think, or I feel" you are describing your experience in accordance with your beliefs and desires (Identity). Then we can press on to say well whats a soul? But that is another topic.

One other thing is if all we are is recycled souls then how/why does the population increase? Whether you believe in creation or evolution both theory's agree that human civilization started out with 1 or 2 humans. If souls are recycled how did we get from the first 1,000 humans to the 5 billion that inhabit the planet today? Reincarnation does not add up literally.

Edit: You said:
One's personality is not something you are born with.
What? Ok, it is a known fact that who we are as people comes from our environment and genetics. So you see you are born with a part of your personality. The rest of it takes form as you are raised in different environments, but allot of it comes from GENETICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And you say that you can argue that the souls came from somewhere else. But where? How? and Why?
Sure, I can say the first thing that comes to my head to, but that does not make it true, feesible, or even likely.