One of the frequent comments I get on these videos
is that I always pick on Christianity; I don't ever talk about any other religion.
Well, there's a reason for that:
I live in the United States. Christianity is the dominant religion.
It's the one that affects me the most on a regular basis.
But, point taken, it's not like any non-Christian religion is any closer to reality.
At best, they may inflict a little less damage onto the world than faiths like
Christianity or Islam can do in the hands of bad people.
And by the way, I was raised in an Eastern religion, Jainism, and I've talked about that in some of these videos.
So, I do have a little bit of experience with that.
So, what are my biggest concerns about Eastern religions?
Well, let me bring up two ideas
that are pretty popular with a lot of Eastern faiths.
Many Eastern religions believe in the idea of karma.
That what you do now is going to come back to you in the future.
You know, if you're really nice now, you're gonna be rewarded for it later on.
And if you're an asshole now, then it's gonna come back to haunt you.
It is a nice concept.
It's one I would love to believe in.
But there's no evidence that it's real. Anyone who says it is,
is basically just linking together a whole bunch of coincidences.
I hate to say it, but there are horrible people who never get punished
for what they do or what they did.
It's not like Hitler is burning in hell right now.
And there are presidents and world leaders who started wars and killed
tens of thousands of people... who are doing just fine right now.
And I'm not really worried about what's gonna happen to them in the afterlife.
On the flip side, some nice guys do finish last.
I mean, some of the greatest peacemakers of our time
were killed because of what they did: Martin Luther King, Mahatma Ghandi.
And it's not like they're celebrating in Heaven right now either. There's no evidence of that.
Karma isn't a scientific principle.
There isn't an equal and opposite reaction to our actions.
And when we talk about karma,
who decides what's good and what's bad?
A higher power? Obviously not.
So what happens when there's some controversy there?
For example, let's say there is a doctor helping a woman
get an abortion.
I think that's a good thing.
But I know a lot of people who would say that's not a good thing.
So, is that good karma or bad karma?
Is that doctor gonna be rewarded or punished for what he or she did?
The other idea I wanna bring up is the idea of reincarnation,
which is one that's believed by Hindus, and Jains, and Buddhists.
Here's the idea of karma as it was explained to me as I growing up. I don't know if I can speak for other Jains here, but at least this is how I was taught.
Let's say you do a lot of bad things in this life.
Then this karma, which we'll say is a bad thing,
builds up on you.
And when you die, and you get reincarnated into your next life,
you're gonna be in a pretty bad situation, a much worse situation than you were
in the current life.
But if you do a lot of good deeds, all that karma sheds off your body.
And then, when you get reincarnated, you're gonna be in a better position in your next life.
And when you keep getting reincarnated, and you go through this cycle over and over,
eventually, you'll shed all of your karma.
And you will have no dust on your body.
And eventually, you'll break free of the cycle
and attain Nirvana, and basically become something like a deity.
If that sounds a little crazy to you, that's... because it is.
But let me explain the bigger problems with the concept of reincarnation.
Again, there's just no evidence for it; so let's get that out of the way.
It suggests that children born with some defect,
maybe some genetic abnormality, or some disability,
they brought it upon themselves in a past life.
I mean, how horrible is it to blame an innocent child
for something they had no control over?
There's also never a clear cut explanation of how long it takes between when you die and when you get reborn.
Like the moment you die, are you being conceived somewhere half here on the world?
Is your soul hanging out in purgatory?
Do you get reborn within like a sort of radius of where you died?
No one's ever explained that one to me.
And if you consider reincarnation as kind of a rebirth of your soul,
then comedian George Carlin made a really good point:
how is the population increasing if reincarnation is going on?
You know, our future generation's getting a fraction of our ancestors' souls, like "What's the math on all of that?"
It suggests that our life is already planned out for us in advance
because if you did good in this life, then God knows you're gonna be in a better position in your next life.
But, really, what does that even mean? Does that mean God's gonna have you born into like a rich family?
Because we all know rich people who are really unhappy.
We all know poor people who are doing just fine.
Like you can't really guarantee that you're gonna be in a better position anywhere else.
We create our own happiness and we're responsible for our own actions.
Speaking of which, reincarnation also takes that responsibility off of you.
Like what you do in this life is depending on what you did in a past one.
As if you have no control over it.
It's the same criticism I have of Astrology.
As if, you know, the position of the stars on the day that you were born,
has any impact on who you are as a person.
It doesn't. There's no evidence of that.
It's silly, it's childish, and anyone who believes in these things needs to grow up.
And, by the way, I didn't even talk about things like the caste system,
irrational dietary habits,
and all the superstitions that are abundant in Eastern religions.
But I hope this is a good starting point for discussion.
My name is Hemant Mehta and I write at FriendlyAtheist.com
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