toldailytopic: Do you believe in reincarnation?

Dena

New member
Reincarnation is a dumb belief which has, in my view, been demonstrably disproved by Aristotle in De Anima and has been authoritatively rejected both by the Scriptures and by the Holy Catholic Church.

It's funny to hear Catholics talk about "dumb beliefs". I mean, you guys really excel in the stupid belief contest.

Anyway, while I like the idea of reincarnation and it is gaining popularity in the Jewish community I find it difficult to believe in any sort of afterlife. That would include reincarnation.
 

Charity

New member
I agree, because where does energy go when you die? What does it do, just vanish? I doubt it. Can energy be recycled? Probably.

Dont you Hate it when religion plays with energy an denies it at the same time, with a big fat NO!...drowning swines maybe pointless to.

Exorcism (from Greek ἐξορκισμός, exorkismos - binding by oath) is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or an area which they are believed to have possessed.

AS the spirit of Elijah can enter John the Baptist.
 

Quincy

New member
Dont you Hate it when religion plays with energy an denies it at the same time, with a big fat NO!...drowning swines maybe pointless to.

Well, there does seem to be inconsistencies. If there is disembodied energy you have to ask where did it come from, what is it doing and where is it going? While I can't say I am sure, I can see energy existing past death and sitting in some limbo type setting until rebirth. Rebirth/reincarnation are interesting topics to discuss. Exorcism is too, I actually do believe there are demons heh.
 

Traditio

BANNED
Banned
It's funny to hear Catholics talk about "dumb beliefs". I mean, you guys really excel in the stupid belief contest.

Anyway, while I like the idea of reincarnation and it is gaining popularity in the Jewish community I find it difficult to believe in any sort of afterlife. That would include reincarnation.

Aristotle's criticism is this: if you're going to grant the transmigration of the soul from body to body, why should this soul go to this body? What's the relationship between soul and body? If just any kind of soul can go into any kind of body, then there's no relationship between the two.

But when you start thinking about the relationship between form and matter, you realize that the soul has to have a relationship to the body: it actuates the body and makes it the kind of body that it is. This means that this soul is the soul of this body.

This is why I have the body of a man, not a lion. [And not only that, I add, it's why I have the body not of a generic man, but of this man.] If just any kind of soul could go into any kind of body, then the same soul (which actuates the potency of matter) would actuate both this body and that body, but this body and that body are different. But if it's the same soul, that can't be the case.

It's worth noting, with all of this in mind, that Christians rightly profess in the Apostle's Creed: "I believe in the resurrection of the body." Not just any body, but this body - my body - will be resurrected.
 

Charity

New member
Jesus walks threw a wall an talks with the apostles, but if Jesus walks threw the wall an talks to a complete nobody, is that going to be a little hard to take?
 

Charity

New member
Well, there does seem to be inconsistencies. If there is disembodied energy you have to ask where did it come from, what is it doing and where is it going? While I can't say I am sure, I can see energy existing past death and sitting in some limbo type setting until rebirth. Rebirth/reincarnation are interesting topics to discuss. Exorcism is too, I actually do believe there are demons heh.

In the end, such as evil possession, could be considered as perhaps the pre earn't judgement? As the good will shine bright with reward.
 

Quincy

New member
Could be it's what they have earned. I've experienced enough with karma to know it makes sure people reap what they sow. So why not spirits, dark or otherwise?
 

Charity

New member
It is evident that wickedness can see its way threw life with out condemnation.Perhaps As said a book of rememberance was written for those that had their lives tormented an destroyed by bullies; I would like to believe that a bully would be reborn in a far less powerful state..
as suggested, to rise to his own condemnation. oh how much better for the tormented that they show the Jewish God that they are willing to back down before they destroy themselves in front of those they once oppressed. :) The best story of love lovest love..smile
 

Buzzword

New member
I'm not sure if I can intellectually handle the concept of reincarnation.

However, understanding its roots in basic observation of the world (seasons, tides, moon phases, etc.), I find it fascinating that western mythologies would attempt to impose a linear spectrum upon human life, when everything else in the universe is observably cyclical.
 

Quincy

New member
I'm not sure if I can intellectually handle the concept of reincarnation.

Consider the law of conservation of energy. Does your energy just cease to exist when you die? I doubt it. Perhaps it converts into a disembodied state where it awaits rebirth. Where did the energy that motivates your being come from? My understanding of rebirth is that it involves a cycling of energy/essence from a passing generation to a new generation.

That isn't necessarily to say the soul reincarnates with memories of past lives intact, maybe that happens but who knows for sure. I'd definitely bet energy is recycled by some unknown process however.
 

Traditio

BANNED
Banned
Does your energy just cease to exist when you die?

The soul isn't energy. Energy is a phenomenal/sense reality. The soul is something that transcends phenomena/sense.

Think:

Matter -> Forms in matter -> Souls -> Angels -> God
 

Buzzword

New member
Consider the law of conservation of energy. Does your energy just cease to exist when you die? I doubt it. Perhaps it converts into a disembodied state where it awaits rebirth. Where did the energy that motivates your being come from? My understanding of rebirth is that it involves a cycling of energy/essence from a passing generation to a new generation.

That isn't necessarily to say the soul reincarnates with memories of past lives intact, maybe that happens but who knows for sure. I'd definitely bet energy is recycled by some unknown process however.

Strictly in terms of energy (in the scientific sense), the energy which moves the body and continues its processes is released in a variety of ways once neurological activity ceases entirely (as well as the resulting cessation of all body processes).

If nothing else, most of it is stored as chemical energy within molecular bonds, and can be released by the digestive processes of most animals.
 

Paulos

New member
Strictly in terms of energy (in the scientific sense), the energy which moves the body and continues its processes is released in a variety of ways once neurological activity ceases entirely (as well as the resulting cessation of all body processes).

If the energy which animates the body is released at death, where does it go? Could it not theoretically be transferred to the body of a newborn person?

The elements which constitute the body of a person are as old as the universe itself. Imagine what the elements of your body have been through before they were brought together to form your body. In that sense, your body has been around before you've been around.
 

Quincy

New member
Strictly in terms of energy (in the scientific sense), the energy which moves the body and continues its processes is released in a variety of ways once neurological activity ceases entirely (as well as the resulting cessation of all body processes).

If nothing else, most of it is stored as chemical energy within molecular bonds, and can be released by the digestive processes of most animals.

Interesting. I agree with you about the energy we create through consuming. We transfer it ourselves, I suppose.

Not that I'm any type of physicist, but I still think electromagnetic energy can exist disembodied. What is your opinion on EME, buzzword?
 

Buzzword

New member
If the energy which animates the body is released at death, where does it go? Could it not theoretically be transferred to the body of a newborn person?

The elements which constitute the body of a person are as old as the universe itself. Imagine what the elements of your body have been through before they were brought together to form your body. In that sense, you've been around before you've been around.

The body's energy is transferred in any number of directions.
Heat energy is absorbed by the molecules of air around us.
Kinetic energy (say from falling in the throes of death) is absorbed by whatever we land on.


I agree with the conservation of matter.
Some days it's more inspiring to know that I'm made of starstuff than any of the church's platitudes.
 

Buzzword

New member
Interesting. I agree with you about the energy we create through consuming. We transfer it ourselves, I suppose.

Not that I'm any type of physicist, but I still think electromagnetic energy can exist disembodied. What is your opinion on EME, buzzword?

Radiant Energy
Well, if you define EME as a stream of photons, it follows that they are streaming TO something.

My understanding of energy in the universe is that it is never simply existing, in the way we understand matter to exist in a single time and physical location.
Energy is always either being transferred among molecules, or is being transformed into another state in order to be transferred.

Now, as Trad mentioned, it's entirely possible that our concept of the "soul" is neither energy nor matter as we understand them.

If it is, then our current methods of understanding and measuring the universe wouldn't apply, and leave the "soul" out of the sphere of scientific understanding for the moment.
 

Paulos

New member
The body's energy is transferred in any number of directions.
Heat energy is absorbed by the molecules of air around us.
Kinetic energy (say from falling in the throes of death) is absorbed by whatever we land on.


I agree with the conservation of matter.
Some days it's more inspiring to know that I'm made of starstuff than any of the church's platitudes.

It would seem to me that consciousness itself is a form of energy, though I'm not sure of what sort. It can't be simply heat energy.

If the energy of consciousness (or some aspect of it) is at all physical then it would survive the death of the body. And because it is physical, it would remain in the physical universe. But what would become of it?
 
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