Reincarnation

If it occurs, it will happen.

Sure. But I think many people will agree that it is very difficult to live with this kind of uncertainty - to give up one's need for certainty to such a degree so as to be happy with an "If it occurs, it will happen."

Trying to "live in the now" can be extremely difficult if not impossible if one doesn't have any big-picture goals and guidelines; and those big-picture goals and guidelines tend to be a matter of speculation, for better or worse.
 
Do you really need to ask?

I think it would really benefit the discussion to clearly understand the distinction; why "I jumped over the Nile where it is widest" is not the same kind of statement as "I remember my past life as a Marcus Aurelius"; or why perhaps it is.
 
Sure. But I think many people will agree that it is very difficult to live with this kind of uncertainty - to give up one's need for certainty to such a degree so as to be happy with an "If it occurs, it will happen."

Trying to "live in the now" can be extremely difficult if not impossible if one doesn't have any big-picture goals and guidelines; and those big-picture goals and guidelines tend to be a matter of speculation, for better or worse.


That is why we should endeavor to live a good life, treating others how we would like to be treated, being compassionate, kind, empathetic and so on.
Opening our minds, and hearts will naturally restrict the potential for lust, anger, and greed, to grow out of control.
I think if we can maintain these standards our minds will become clear.

jan.
 
That is why we should endeavor to live a good life, treating others how we would like to be treated, being compassionate, kind, empathetic and so on.

But for what purpose, to what end?

It's not like we can ignore life's big questions on whether this life is all there is and so on.

IOW, why bother being kind etc., if you are not sure whether there is God, whether this life is all there is, etc.?
 
Signal

But for what purpose, to what end?


That is the purpose.
The end is going to come regardless of what, so there's no point in living
our life for the end. It will simply pass us by.

It's not like we can ignore life's big questions on whether this life is all there is and so on.


We accept it, or we don't.
I imagine clear thinking put all of this in perspective.

IOW, why bother being kind etc., if you are not sure whether there is God, whether this life is all there is, etc.?

That's just philosophical pondering, and while we ponder, life passes us by.
Pondering is okay, but the reality is, we have to live, here and now.
Reality comes from how we act, happiness comes from contentment, contentment comes from peace, and peace comes from fullfiling your active potential. Thought, and ponderance is good if it helps us to live such a life, otherwise we waste precious time.

jan.
 
AFAIK Hinduism is the only major religion that incorporates reincarnation in its theology, and those who take reincarnation seriously most definitely believe that everyone undergoes it. Even the lower animals, since if you're really an asshole you might come back as a rat, a cockroach or a flatworm.

Considering that up until the closing decades of the 19th century, 99% (or more) of humans were farmers, it is indeed amusing that very few of the people who claim to have memories of a past life remember being farmers. Depending on the era, a considerable number were also slaves, and I haven't heard of anyone remembering that experience either.

This in itself casts doubt on the veracity of the claims: they are statistically unbelievable.

Oh yeah, and people who speak English usually remember past lives in which they spoke English. The English-speaking community was a whole lot smaller before the colonial era, so it's hard to imagine how all those anglophones fit on Britannia. ;)
If you've never encountered a claim of belonging to an agricultural community or to a NES community, or even enough of them to rate it as common, it makes me wonder whether you are just making all this up
The Rule of Laplace is an important component of the scientific method, and it reminds us that extraordinary assertions must be supported by extraordinary evidence before we are obliged to treat them with respect.
If you don't also forget to include "extraordinary qualification" in the equation, then you would have a reasonable proposal

Saying things that any serious devotee of this particular brand of woo-woo could have easily looked up in historical documents just ain't extraordinary evidence.
like a housewife finding out about personal things about a remote family in another country that they can't speak the language of during a period a few hundred years ago?
The key issue here is not the memories people claim to have. Even under a lie detector they could be dreams, psychoses or hypnotic suggestions that the person honestly believes to be true. The key issue is the biological mechanism by which memories are transmitted from a dead person to a living person. No one has the faintest idea how this might work.
What biological mechanism does a dead person have?
:eek:
Considering that some of these people are the same ones who deny abiogenesis, which, even though it has not been completely explained,
Completely explained?
How do you even partially explain abiogenesis in any meaningful way?
still has a considerable accretion of evidence,
A partial explanation of abiogenesis is as credible as being partially alive or being partially pregnant.

Far from citing those who don't rank abiogeneis as credible (and even further as citing them as being the major creed who comes forth with validated experiences of past lives), I think you are rapidly losing credibility with these wild claims.
it's amusing that they embrace reincarnation, for which there is no respectable evidence at all.It's also catching on in America. I know a couple who went to a "past life regression specialist." And the lady helped them discover that they had been lovers in a previous century! Wow, what are the odds?No. As I noted above, many of them are sincere. Many people have vivid dreams which meld into memories as time passes. And lately it's been discovered that the memory of virtually every one of us is so flawed that after a time quite a bit of what we think we remember is false.You don't understand the scientific method.
its amusing that you cite the weakest claim in the field as the example to scrutinize
The burden of proof is always on the person making the positive assertion.
yet you dismiss this criteria when rallying behind the authority of abiogenesis?
 
After careful consideration and much dwelling on this question I think anyone who thinks they are reincarnated are just full of shit.
 
Why thank you, they say that people who call others names are insecure with themselves, so you must have many problems. :p
Or alternatively, calling a person a name (like they are full of shit for example) is an accurate description of them (like if they offer a mere half paragraph as a conclusive investigation of a subject)
 
Signal

Can you show me which threads those issues have been discussed please?

Let's turn this around:

You claim X.
A person doubts you.
If you are telling the truth, and the other person doesn't believe you,
what more do you think you should do?
What do you think they should do?

Well I wouldn't care. I'd carry on jumping over the Nile.
The same as the guys who believe they had a past life.
 
Look them up yourself.
I'm not reading your 3,400 posts to find out what you think to a similar question. I was hoping you or someone else could answer it directly. I've only been reading this place for a few weeks.
Spoiled brat!
Get over yourself.
Jan was asking if someone believed they had had past lives, what should they do to convince me.
I likened it to if someone believed they could jump the Nile, what should they do to convince me.
Now you're asking if I believed I could jump the Nile, what should I do to convince others, and I told you.

How is that spoilt?
 
Or alternatively, calling a person a name (like they are full of shit for example) is an accurate description of them (like if they offer a mere half paragraph as a conclusive investigation of a subject)

I only was generalizing when I made my statement, not at an individual but to ANYONE that thinks like that and thinks they are, you , on the other hand, singled me out to throw your insecurities at. :p
 
drumbeat,
Absolutely not.
But we know that is physically impossible.
The two scenarios cannot be compared.
Why not compare them?

They are both completely convinced in what they say. One is saying he had a past life, one is saying he jumped the Nile.

I personally wouldn't believe either scenario, but would offer reasons as to why they believed it.
 
I only was generalizing when I made my statement, not at an individual but to ANYONE that thinks like that and thinks they are, you , on the other hand, singled me out to throw your insecurities at. :p
its not so much what you call them that I am concerned about - its more about your lack of investigation of the subject .... the whole half paragraph of it
:eek:
 
its not so much what you call them that I am concerned about - its more about your lack of investigation of the subject .... the whole half paragraph of it
:eek:

I really do not need to investigate it more than I have during my lifetime and come to my conclusions about such nonsense. Because I do not think that it even exists is because as to this day no one has ever proven that they are reincarnated except those who BELIEVE they are.
 
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Bora Bora bored.

Waiting for reincarnation.​
 
I have heard about cases where people say they have memories of their past live. Their are stories of children who remember parts of past peoples lives. Is this credible evidence for reincarnation?

I'm not convinced that it's true. There are no end of apocryphal stories of it happening, but little or no credible documentation of anything verifiable. Like Fraggie says, we don't see children being born who are able to speak obscure languages that they've never been exposed to.

If that kind of thing was actually happening, it would certainly be evidence of some kind of unconventional ESP-style information source. I'm less sure that it would be evidence of reincarnation.

What's the difference (is there any difference) between having intimate extrasensory knowledge of a previously deceased person's life and actually being that person?
 
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