Can reincarnation be proven or disproven?

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Signs654
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31 Mar 2009, 3:12 pm

Can reincarnation be proven or disproven through science? I don't think it can. And I don't think that if reincarnation exists, that it is possible for anyone to remember past lives.

The question some people ask is, if reincarnation exists, why don't we remember past lives? I think that question is like asking, If we ever were babies, why don't we remember it? People don't remember being babies, though they were a baby.



TallyMan
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31 Mar 2009, 3:37 pm

Signs654 wrote:
People don't remember being babies, though they were a baby.


Speak for yourself. I decided the world was a bad place as soon as I was born. Some sod held me upside down by my legs and spanked me! :evil:


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GuyTypingOnComputer
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31 Mar 2009, 4:02 pm

Earth has housed carbon-based life forms for billions of years. It is very likely that at least one person on earth includes the recycled remains of another life form that had previously died and that some future life will include our recycled remains. This is provable.

It is the circle of life... blah blah blah ... a-weema weh, etc.



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31 Mar 2009, 4:25 pm

Signs654 wrote:
Can reincarnation be proven or disproven through science?

IF reincarnation is part of reality, then the answer is 'Yes ... eventually.'

Personally, I believe that claims of remembering past lives are delusionary at best, and deceptive at worst.

And by 'delusionary,' I do not mean to call anyone a liar. For all I know, there are some people who believe whole-heartedly that reincarnation is real, just as I believe that it is not. Both sides can't be right, so one side has to be wrong.

However, belief alone is not evidence. Just because "everybody believes" thus-and-such, the belief alone does not make it real. Only a live demonstration would convince me.

For example, if my late cousin, "JD," were to reincarnate, and in his new form were to come to me and tell me what is was we found in the cave just before it collapsed, then I will believe in reincarnation.


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31 Mar 2009, 8:05 pm

Reincarnation may be non-testable, non-falsifiable, etc. But that doesn't mean that science and logic can't make it look embarrassingly silly. I mean, I question the logical coherence, as their is no preserved identity, so what is being reincarnated is unclear at best, and souls, essences, etc., lack clear meaningful definitions. About the only prediction that reincarnation can make is that in some cases people may remember things about past lives, which is to say the structure of some blobby piece of matter in the past is influencing this blobby piece of matter now. Now, this looks silly because the mechanism posits a dualism which lacks any and all credibility in a modern scientific context. But worse yet, that even if the prediction were born out, true to form, it doesn't prove reincarnation; maybe it's some psi activity; who knows? Concluding reincarnation is a claim too strong to be gotten from the evidence. The mechanism is prima facie absurd, and the evidence need not support the mechanism. The whole thing is worse than shaky.


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Tragedyanne
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31 Mar 2009, 10:58 pm

No, I don't think it can be proven either way.

My earliest memory from when I was 4 or 5 (that I can still see clearly now) is of a blonde woman smoking in bed, though. It's kind of creepy. Maybe it was some image I saw on TV at the time, but I always got the eerie sense that I was her at one point.

My brother when he was younger (5 or 6ish as well) used to always speak beginning his sentences with "When I was big . . ." as well, and usually launch into some strange story despite his age. Also creepy.