I have a friend who says she believes in reincarnation.
How the heck do I even try and debunk that? Of course I’ll have to go into some metaphysical field, but still…
And that reminds me, with such radical different beliefs across the world, how in the world did the Christian missionaries convert, for example, those in Feudal Japan who practiced Buddhism? The person who immediately comes to mind is St. Francis Xavier. I suppose the fact that one can say that Christ was some sort of samarai sacrificing himself for his lord is easy enough, but how does one go into the more metaphysical doctrines?
Thanks
Scott:
Reincarnation is a tough question to wrestle with as it is one of those subjects that is a purely speculative consideration. It must be thought out before it is truly adhered to; and I don’t think that it generally is.
The concept of the soul as
form, is a unique adoption, in most respects, of Christianity. Most non-Christian conceptions of soul view it as an ethereal being, or gas-like thing that has a separate reality from whatever living body it happens to be inhabiting at the moment. For example, in one pseudo-religion it is known as a “thetan.” As such, and upon the death of its previous landlord body it may float around for exceptionally long periods of time until it finds another unencumbered body (of any sort) to inhabit. And, the body-organism may not be a particularly desirable one. That is, the thetan may be an amoeba forever.
Other forms of theosophy are structured differently. For some, dying and returning may be a cyclical endeavor – one that we desire to escape from.
In Christianity, thanks in large part to Aquinas, the soul is perhaps best defined: as the
form of the being. More precisely, it is an admixture of form and primary matter. As such, it is completely unique. It is a
principle of “differentiation,” determining each of us from each other. So, on the one hand the soul is that exigency that determines us to be this or that separate and unique individual and, on the other it terminates the motion of coming to be. Reincarnation requires an instilment of some sort. The spirit sort of stands in line awaiting a (or the next) fertilized ovum then wends its way into it.
In its role as a
determinant, a soul is a “one-and-only:” like plants and lower animals: each being distinct from one another, so too are human souls, matter-form composites distinct from one another. It would seem that God would somehow have less perfection if he had to “recycle,” as it were, souls by reincarnating us. How could God run out of creativity? Of course, God is not required for reincarnation theosophy.
A further question involves whether all of us undergo the reincarnation cycle. If so, and if we take with us some residue from our past lives, how then is it possible for people to be adamantly theistic or non-theistic? Should not each of us have the prior knowledge of past lives and the cycle of entrapment? I know there are those that
say they do, but there are those that swear that they’ve seen space aliens too. Here I am not talking about possibilities, rather I am speaking to logic.
Additionally, among the various theosophies the life-imparter (soul, thetan, etc.) has a
beginning and, in some cases, an
end. If the reincarnation exigencies have beginnings, logic dictates that there must be an entity (or entities)
outside of them that effectuate their coming to be. Furthermore, if they can go out of existence, there must be an infinite multitude of them/us – otherwise, of course, there could come a time when there are no more of them/us. But, if there were an infinite multitude of them/us, what need would we have for “reincarnation” – other that to vex us? This would seem to supplant God. It would seem, if carried all the way out, to replace “God” with me, or you. If we were gods, certainly we would choose to create better bodies; or better pain remedies; or a whole host of other “betters.” Heaven knows, we should have had lots of practice.
God bless,
jd
