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I've always thought reincarnation made the most sense. I actually thought about since I was 5 years old and my babysitter died. I also had a few minor flashbacks, starting at a young age. Haven't had any in years.
Many of you think the concept of reincarnation is bizarre, but it is a belief shared by over 2 billion people. When I was heavily involved in church I couldn't get used to the fact that some people were born in nice Christian homes and had life easy, while others were born as ragpickers who often had to steal to survive, and the only religions around were non-Christian ones.
People are not born on equal footing so to speak.
Eastern philosophies answer that question. They believe that life is like a school and your mission is to reduce negative karma in order to eventually gain enlightenment. The circumstances that you are born with, are dictated by your actions during your previous life. Whether you are a Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Pagan, doesn't matter so much as self improvement and getting rid of excess karma (consider karma to be sin residue or something). Most Eastern philosophies are far more accepting of other's religious beliefs than Christians are.
I think as a Christian and have studied the bible more than any other religious book, therefore I choose to seek enlightenment thru a Christian perspective.
Reincarnation can also be explained scientifically: matter never dies it just gets transformed forever.
I've always thought reincarnation made the most sense. I actually thought about since I was 5 years old and my babysitter died. I also had a few minor flashbacks, starting at a young age. Haven't had any in years.
Many of you think the concept of reincarnation is bizarre, but it is a belief shared by over 2 billion people. When I was heavily involved in church I couldn't get used to the fact that some people were born in nice Christian homes and had life easy, while others were born as ragpickers who often had to steal to survive, and the only religions around were non-Christian ones.
People are not born on equal footing so to speak.
Eastern philosophies answer that question. They believe that life is like a school and your mission is to reduce negative karma in order to eventually gain enlightenment. The circumstances that you are born with, are dictated by your actions during your previous life. Whether you are a Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Pagan, doesn't matter so much as self improvement and getting rid of excess karma (consider karma to be sin residue or something). Most Eastern philosophies are far more accepting of other's religious beliefs than Christians are.
I think as a Christian and have studied the bible more than any other religious book, therefore I choose to seek enlightenment thru a Christian perspective.
Reincarnation can also be explained scientifically: matter never dies it just gets transformed forever.
I do find the concept to be fascinating, and it even makes sense, but the Bible IMO makes it clear that this is not true. However, I will say this: my ex-girlfriend's mom used to tell us stories about how when she was a toddler she was irrationally afraid of men in uniform and would have dreams about a war with bombings and mass genocide. A symbol was on the flags and the arms of the soldiers, and when she got older she realized one day that the symbol from her dreams was the Nazi swaztika. I had no reason to disbelieve her, she and I got along well and she was always truthful in every other matter. She thought that she was someone who died in the concentration camps.
Again, just relating a personal story here.
One thing I have mentioned before is that I believe that karma is a universal spiritual truth, it just goes by a different name in the eastern religions. In the Bible it's called reaping and sowing!
My only strong recollection happened when I was 5 and going to a modern Catholic church (probably to the sitters funeral). While walking down the hall the walls turned in to old stone walls and I a vision of being in the inside of a 10th century monastery, complete with monk robes, gregorian chants, and everything else. Maybe I was a poor monk in some past life. I didn't see images that that until I hitchhiked around Europe at age 19, the visions came back crystal clear what I had seen. At age 5 I had no idea.
But my belief in reincarnation is more due to the questions I had about the ragpickers, then possible visions of a 5 year old.
I did think up the concept of reincarnation as a child and mentioned it to my older sister. She thought it made sense. She wanted to come back as a horse.
One thing I have mentioned before is that I believe that karma is a universal spiritual truth, it just goes by a different name in the eastern religions. In the Bible it's called reaping and sowing!
Yes, I also thought about "sowing and reaping," Jeff!
In general, from a Christian perspective, I don't think there is anything in the Bible that would be at all compatible with reincarnation. The primary scripture I think about which speaks to this is Hebrews 9:27 "...as it is appointed unto men once to die, after this the judgment:" NASB If you further look at the teachings of Jesus, it is pretty clear that He didn't have in mind any "do overs."
If I'm to understand reincarnation, in its most basic form, we will come back in a form that is a summation of where we have been and will provide us the means to learn what we need to learn "this time around".
If this is true, though, how does it explain the population explosion we've noticed throughout time. Surely not every new person has an "old soul" that has been reincarnated. There wouldn't have been enough to go around.
If I'm to understand reincarnation, in its most basic form, we will come back in a form that is a summation of where we have been and will provide us the means to learn what we need to learn "this time around".
If this is true, though, how does it explain the population explosion we've noticed throughout time. Surely not every new person has an "old soul" that has been reincarnated. There wouldn't have been enough to go around.
According to the Hindus there are millions of planets that you have to go through, before attaining enlightenment and Nirvana.
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Again I see it as logical and all but IMO the Bible says no, so...
