‘Resurrection Is More Likely to Be True Than Reincarnation.’ Discuss Free Essays

Resurrection is more likely to be true than reincarnation. ’ Discuss In discussing this statement, we must first define the words resurrection and reincarnation to decipher what they mean. Resurrection is the act of rising from the dead or returning to life and reincarnation is the rebirth of a soul in a new body. We will write a custom essay sample on ‘Resurrection Is More Likely to Be True Than Reincarnation.’ Discuss or any similar topic only for you Order Now There are many problems surrounding the two due to mainly religious beliefs. I will be focussing mainly of the religion of Hinduism as they believe in reincarnation, and Christianity which believes in resurrection. Reincarnation is a common belief in the eastern part of the world, with Buddhism as well as Hinduism, supporting the idea of rebirth. In Hinduism each person has an essential self which is called the Atman, and is eternal and seeks unity with God. At physical death, the Atman leaves the body and enters another at birth. The physical body is gone but the Atman remains the same. The status of the body that the Atman re-enters is depended on whether in the previous life the person was morally good or bad, if good it will be in a higher status body, and if bad will be in a lower status body. This cycle of rebirth, birth and death is called Karma which Buddhism also follows, except they do not believe in a soul, but instead the five skandhas which are woven together and make a person attract karma. These two religions are heavily followed in the eastern part of the world and so therefore it may be argued that because it is an accepted belief it is therefore normal to believe in such an idea, however in the western part of the world where religions such as Christianity are followed it is not as accepted. Some would also question the fairness of suffering in this life for something in a past life which they cannot remember and that punishment doesn’t have a value unless you understand what it is for; it needs to be associated with something. However, Hindus would argue that karma is not seen as a punishment; it is just bearing out the karmic fruits and is a part of the Natural Law, and if you can’t remember a past life, that is a sign of wisdom. There have been cases where reincarnation has been seen to be identified, for example by an American professor of psychiatry, Ian Stevenson. He wrote a book, ‘Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation’, where he looked at cases where people had seen to be reincarnated from someone else in the past from India, Ceylon and Brazil. He used examples of children to make his judgement more reliable as they would not be influenced by society or money in such a way that adults might. In one case there was a boy, Imad, who talked about a family whom he used to live with, and the family had no connection to this other family at all. He gave the name of where he lived and the family name, events and people that he knew there, and could even direct them to the area of where he used to live. Stevenson later found out that a man, Ibrahim, had died there and which matched up to all the events that the man had seen. The reincarnation was not immediate but was nine years later. This extraordinary case gives strong belief that reincarnation is true. However philosopher John Locke studied Steveson’s book and suggests that the dead person has left behinf some psycic traces or husks and therefore has a ‘memory’ of the previous life, and is therefore not reincarnated. Reincarnation completely goes against the teachings of many other religions, such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism as resurrection is the key to their religion. Without resurrection there would be no point to the religion. For Christianity, Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, so too will we come to resurrection at the end of time, when Jesus returns to the Earth. When the dead will rise from their graves and will be called up to God to be judged and the bad will then â€Å"go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life†. Fundamentalist Christians believe exactly what the Bible says and therefore will believe that we will rise again in physical forms as Jesus did. If this is the case, it implies that after death there is some sort of space and that they take up room, so where would this be? Would it have a climate or shelter? And famously Peter Cole said if we are all physical bodies then you ‘will have to queue to see Jesus’. Hick is a more modern philosopher, who came up with the idea of the Replica Theory. Despite not believing it himself, he described it as a thought process that tackles the idea of resurrection. If John Smith disappears from one place and appears in another with exactly the same DNA, personality and physical matter, we must conclude that this is the same man, John Smith. then let’s say if this happened, but instead of another earthly location, John Smith appeared in a resurrection world. It is the same man again, but in another world entirely. An issue with Hicks theory is that, how would we be recreated in the other place, and surely a replica of someone would have exactly the same bodily problems as the original person. If someone was ying for example, their replica would also be dying as it is exactly the same. But Hick also brings up the idea that we have a new resurrection body created by God that is without earthly defects. A more viable answer to resurrection that some Christians believe is that the soul is resurrected and that spiritual body will live on. The idea that the resurrected body will be forever in eternal life links in with Kant’s idea of the Summum Bonum which is the highest good, in heaven, and suggests that because there is terror in the world, once resurrected with God, He will make everything alright. In conclusion, reincarnation seems to be more likely to be true than resurrection due to the fact that resurrection brings out more questions than answers to it, rather than a simple concept of karma. Studies have been examined with reincarnation, and not in resurrection which gives more evidence for the theory of reincarnation to be true. Reincarnation may seem prominent in many peoples’ lives without knowing it as deja vu may be a sign of this, which I can relate to myself. How to cite ‘Resurrection Is More Likely to Be True Than Reincarnation.’ Discuss, Papers