I want to quote two more arguments that Thomas gives against reincarnation and see your thoughts. One of the reasons I love my faith is that it is reasonable. I once thought reincarnation could be true, but then I read Thomas and realized the beliefs of the Catholic faith can be verified by reason. I now find the idea of reincarnation, not only contrary to my faith, but contrary to reason. The beauty of the Catholic faith for me is that it is not whimsical like mythology or paganism, but rationally grounded. Anyway, have a look at these arguments and tell me what you think. These again come from the Summa Contra Gentiles, Book II, Ch. 83.
On the other hand, the hypothesis that souls are united to bodies neither by violence nor by nature, but by free choice is likewise impossible. For no on voluntarily enters into a state worse than a previous one, unless he be decieved. But the separate soul enjoys a higher state of existence than when united to the body; especially according to the Platonists, who say that through its union with the body, the soul forgets what it knew before, its power to contemplate truth in a pure manner thus being checked. Hence, the soul is not willingly united to the body unless it be the victim of deception. But there can be nothing in the soul that could cause deception, since, for the Platonists, the soul is possessed of all knowledge. Nor can it be said that the soul’s judgment, proceeding from universal scientific knowledge and applied to a particular matter of choice, is overwhelmed by the passions, as in the incontinent; for no passions of this sort occur without bodily change, and consequently, they cannot exist in the separate soul. We are then left to the conclusion that, if the soul had existed before the body, it would not be united to the body of its own will.
{18} Moreover, every effect issuing from the concurrent operation of two mutually unrelated wills is fortuitous, as in the case of a person who goes out to shop and meets his creditor in the market place without any prior arrangement between the two. Now, the will of the generative agent, whereon the body’s production depends, is independent of the will of the separate soul which wills to be united. It follows that the union of the soul and body is fortuitous, since it cannot be effected without the concurrence of both wills. Thus, the begetting of a man results not from nature, but from chance, which is patently false, since it occurs in the majority of cases."
