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If it was real and you could retain memories of past lives, I'm confident we'd have some evidence/proof.
If it exists without memory retention and its just some sort of "soul" concept then it really doesn't matter since you won't remember anything for it to be worth worrying about.
The fact that brain injuries can erase memories shows that memory isn't going to continue when the brain no longer functions.
No.
Do you remember before being born? It's the same after.
Can you prove that memory is a reliable way to determine reality without referencing memory?
The fact that your particular molecules will reconstruct into something else is 100% certain
Will you keep your particular consciousness in this process - unlikely
However if you drop off the definition of You as your current limited body and mind, then reincarnation is exactly what happens.
Yeeeeah, all due respect to believers, but we're squishy wet computers riding squishy wet stilts and when we get turned off we just sort of fizzle out.
There's some poetry to only having one go at it, but I'm not gonna stand here and say a sense of humanism makes your hardcoded fear of death subside. I get why humans come up with coping mechanisms where they get to live forever in some form that isn't having their atoms repurposed as fertilizer and space dust.
Suppose reincarnation was real. But no one has any memory or awareness of a past life. So then what connection does said past life even have to you? How can any supposed past 'you's really be considered the same you?
But no one has any memory or awareness of a past life.
Yes, that's how the religion of reincarnation (sorry, I forgot which religion it is) has been taught in school to us westerners.
But with that condition the whole thing is not provable and not deniable, and makes no sense in general, because it remains purely a theory far away from all normal life.
No.
Enjoy the ride.
Not in the traditional sense, but I have a pet theory about the continuation of consciousness.
You can only experience being, not not-being, so even if your consciousness went dark for a million years before being “reincarnated,” there would be no gap from the perspective of your subjective experience. You can only go from having one experience to having another. Nothingness can’t be experienced.
Makes me think about going into a coma from a car accident. Your consciousness could be out for however long, then you make a weird fantasy and regain consciousness and start a journey to fill recovery. It would be good to have a healthy attitude/mindset imprinted onto yourself in that scenario.
Well, no, consciousness is not independent on brain. It's not magic or stored anywhere. Pretty simple proof: people with brain damage very often have a huge personality shift.
Anyway, even if you forget stuff, the pathways between neurons have already been made. And sometimes you remember things randomly after many, many years.
I believe in reincarnation just as much as I believe any other theory of an afterlife - that is to say, I don't.
We don't know. Nobody knows what happens when we die. That's ok, and I don't feel the need to make up a story to explain away the uncertainty.
I think it's likely that something happens when we die, but it could just as easily be nothingness, the end of existence. I only think it's likely because I definitely believe that there is SO much that we don't understand about the universe that it's more probable than not that SOMETHING happens that we can't currently fathom, perceive, or understand.
But, right now there's no real evidence. So I don't care, and I don't worry about it.
To our best understanding, everything that lives will die. I don't know what happens, it might be some form of heaven, it might be reincarnation, it might be transcendence, etc. However, I take comfort in the fact that it's a shared experience, whatever it is. It's natural. It's part of the process.
The universe doesn't owe us an explanation. Maybe we'll figure it out, but we haven't yet, and I'm fine with that.
I do believe in reincarnation, in that we are all physical manifestations of what you could call "God". That means that everyone you meet, every dog you pet, every ant you accidentally squish, is synonymous with the divine. We are all constantly reincarnating throughout the universe, and this should be looked at no more acutely than the cells in your body constantly dying and being reborn.
I guess you could call it pantheism, though I tend to follow philosophies like Zen Buddhism and the Tao and it still seems to work.
Looking at existence in this way can form a new understanding, nay, a new reverence towards your life and the universe. Then you will understand who you really are and why you're here. The real power of God is in manifesting everywhere, all the time, all at once. After all...
And that is, of course, why the images of the Hindu gods are shown with many arms or many faces: because it is saying that all arms are the arms of the divinity, all faces are its masks.
-Alan Watts, Out Of Your Mind
If there is reincarnation and you don't remember a single thing from before, why bother it doesn't matter.
If there would be reincarnation where you remembered your previous life, surely someone would have spilled the beans on this by now. I surely would contact any sort of family friends that i had previously.
Since both could be possible but 2. hasnt happened and 1 doesnt matter i would give this a no.
Nope. I have never seen any evidence of reincarnation, so have no reason to believe in it.
It doesn’t make sense biologically
To be honest, the only answer i have to say is: "we'll see". Wheter it's nothing or not, the second option would imply that there is effectively something beyond what we know about the universe.
What even is the soul? YOU from now think very different than YOU from ten years ago. Can we say that those two people are the same? Not really. Yet you share common memories with this early you, who doesn't exist anynore. Is it technically correct in this point of view to say that you are the reincarnation of you from ten years ago?
If someone in the far future were to think like you, to remember exact memories from yours, would act the same way you would act in the same situation, it would not we wrong to say they are your reincarnation, no?
Again i'm just supposing.
No
I like the idea in Buddhism, that you are precious/valuable from the moment you are born. You already achieved plenty in your past life, which is why you were born as a human. Therefore, there is no need for self-hatred or for pressure to perform.
No but I wonder if hell is being made an insect over and over.
I don't think insects have a notion of being happy or sad so it wouldn't be too bad
Well it is part of my religion, but how it's interpreted varies :3
I personally don't worry over death too much either way
it seems reinicarnation, is an obsession amongst western countries co-opted from india/buddhism, and incorporated into many medias.
Nope. When I die, there is no longer a me of any sort; just any media and memory that captures some moment of when I still was until those too fade.
It's hard to say exactly. I wouldn't put it past the dev(s) to have potentially put something like "The Egg" in, so potentially yes, though we'd have no way of testing for it.
Story by Andy Weir here: https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI
Yeah I watched that video when it was new and had it rattling around in my head. It probably why I starting thinking memories and intelligence aren't part of consciousness. I do think emotions are connected to consciousness because they seem to override decision making.
Eh... No, but its nice to think about it.
As stated by many others, evidence is required to prove something. However, the stories we tell ourselves are comforting, so I wont fault anyone who does. Up until the point where people start going "My sky-dad could totally beat up your sky-dad", that can Belgium right off...
Regarding consciousness/the human experience, I think the best way I've seen it explained is: a soul (whether you add the religious meaning or not) watching a brain watching a body.
Personally, since I believe I'll be judged by the Creator, I do believe in life (consciousness) after death. Not reincarnation, but it's a continuation. Monotheists around the world believe in it also, for whatever that's worth. 😅
