And Joshua on YouTube Live poses the following question: "How do we disprove
reincarnation through philosophy if that's the best method for resolution?"
Well, so, it's an interesting challenge. There...reincarnation is something that
you can critique on more than one ground. It is possible to mount a philosophical
critique of reincarnation, and point out, for example, there
are aspects of reincarnation that are potentially problematic. Like the idea of
karma, that whatever you do is going to bounce back on you, and there's basically
no mercy in the universe, that the universe is a merciless place. And
that's something that doesn't fully appeal to the human heart. The human
heart wants to find mercy in the world, and in fact some adherents of Eastern
religions talk about mercy and place a value on mercy. But if the universe is
fundamentally merciless, per the law of karma, then that would...then why
should they even bother being merciful? Why should that be of value? Well, our
hearts tell us that mercy is a value, and so that should tell us that mercy is
available in the world, and should be--there should be some room for cosmic
mercy in our worldview as well as cosmic justice. Now, other forms of the idea of
reincarnation may incorporate elements of mercy, so they may not respond to that
argument. There are other potential arguments as well. For example, sometimes
it's proposed, in these religions that believe in reincarnation, that
ultimately everybody is going to end up in an ideal spiritual condition, whether
that's conceived of as Nirvana, or Krishna consciousness, or whatever it may
be. But how do you know? How do you know that's gonna happen? That's--if the
universe is--it just operates kind of mechanically according to karma, people
could descend spiritually as easily as they ascend, so what gives you faith that
that people are going to ascend? That's not something that falls right out of
the concepts involved, and so you can ask for evidence. Now ultimately
from a Christian point of view, it's not a philosophical case against
reincarnation that's going to be the most convincing. From a Christian point
of view, the fact that the idea of reincarnation is not compatible with the
Christian revelation is what's going to be most convincing. It's directly stated
in the book of Hebrews that it's appointed for man once to die, and then
the judgment. So we die once, and then we're judged by God. We don't die over
and over again. That's the specific idea that was out there in Greek culture that
the author of Hebrews is responding to. He's not just saying that out of the
blue, he's saying that in response to a cultural background where many people
did believe in reincarnation. And you find the same theme echoed over and over
again in the Church Fathers. You can check out my book "The Fathers Know Best"
if you want examples of that. But from a Christian point of view, I'd say it's not
the philosophical arguments that are ultimately decisive--although they can be
helpful. I'd say it's the Christian revelation, and so in talking with
someone who believes in reincarnation, I would either, if they're already a
Christian of some sort, even if they're at, say, a New Age-er who still has some
kind of belief in Christ, I would try to build on that. I would also say I
understand--if they're not, let's say they're Hindu--I would say "I understand
and respect your position; here's why I don't believe in reincarnation, and let's
talk about the basis of the Christian faith, then. Because if the Christian
faith has a good basis, that means you would want to take its
teachings--like resurrection is our fate, not reincarnation--you'd want to take
those seriously too, so let's talk about the reasons why one should take the
Christian faith seriously. And to your knowledge, was there ever a time
where maybe a Christian group or something grasped on to--ignored, for
example, that admonition from the letter to the Hebrews, and
nonetheless believed--" You find scattered instances all the way down
through history, because, you know, people get crazy ideas that are inconsistent
with the teaching of the Church in every age. And certainly that's been
true in recent in in recent times. In the last 150 years there has been a
lot of interaction between East and West, and various groups have tried to
hybridize eastern and western religious concepts, like the Theosophical Society
and the New Age movement and things like that. So you do find people who are
trying to kind of straddle that east-west divide these days.