tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post9125410852431233837..comments2024-03-28T17:44:11.289+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Problems with re-incarnationBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-19077190783916068272016-09-24T00:24:48.871+01:002016-09-24T00:24:48.871+01:00Here are two excerpts from the Urantia book regard...Here are two excerpts from the Urantia book regarding reincarnation. Hard to say where the truth might be.<br /><br />" (94:2.3) The undue concentration on self led certainly to a fear of the nonevolutionary perpetuation of self in an endless round of successive incarnations as man, beast, or weeds. And of all the contaminating beliefs which could have become fastened upon what may have been an emerging monotheism, none was so stultifying as this belief in transmigration—the doctrine of the reincarnation of souls—which came from the Dravidian Deccan. This belief in the weary and monotonous round of repeated transmigrations robbed struggling mortals of their long-cherished hope of finding that deliverance and spiritual advancement in death which had been a part of the earlier Vedic faith.<br /><br /> (164:3.4) There was, throughout all these regions, a lingering belief in reincarnation. The older Jewish teachers, together with Plato, Philo, and many of the Essenes, tolerated the theory that men may reap in one incarnation what they have sown in a previous existence; thus in one life they were believed to be expiating the sins committed in preceding lives. The Master found it difficult to make men believe that their souls had not had previous existences."U_ranthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03489999630966002864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-68945758377051608072016-09-22T16:23:56.722+01:002016-09-22T16:23:56.722+01:00I've always been uncomfortable with the notion...I've always been uncomfortable with the notion that God could not give a second chance. What about people who lived holy lives but never heard of Jesus? What about those whose lives were cut short before they had a chance? There are hints in scripture that judgment is not black and white, that people will be judged according to their deeds as balanced with what they were given. And the rewards are not even. This is never fully explained.<br /><br />The traditional beliefs in reincarnation and karma are unsatisfactory. (Infrequent?) reincarnation of the same essential person for a "second chance" is much more compatible. It doesn't completely satisfy, but I hope you explore this idea more in the future.Derek Ramseyhttp://derekramsey.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-18775724491449090682016-09-22T14:45:12.355+01:002016-09-22T14:45:12.355+01:00I hadn't thought of it in precisely those term...I hadn't thought of it in precisely those terms, but I see that you are right. If the spirit's participation in the body is meaningful, then the body is not just a waldo and the spirit cannot just put on another body, like swapping a new boot for an old boot.<br /><br />Adam G.http://www.jrganymede.comnoreply@blogger.com