- #71
Ryan_m_b
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
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dm4b said:Like a USB port at the back of the neck? In all seriousness, though, what are you looking for? What is memory? What is the "medium" from which it will travel from one "brain" to another?
We have a good understanding that the brain holds memories. Indeed in many types of brain surgery it is necessary to keep the patient talking about a particular subject (such as dates) to make sure the surgeon isn't damaging their memory. If reincarnation were true (thats a huge IF) then these memories would have to transmit from one brain to another, or to some memory bank. Since we have absolutely no evidence of this that is another indication that reincarnation isn't true.
We just established earlier that most humans don't remember their past lives. Why would we expect animals too, and well enough to pass on life lessons to the next life? How are you going to know where and when said animal reincarnates?
We have not established anything about past lives except that there is no evidence for them. Again if reincarnation were true we would expect it to not be solely human, this could be one attempt to examine the phenomenon. If you cannot test it then there is no point speculating it.
But, it is an interesting point. We all come with certain predispositions, temperaments, talents. Back when they started the human genome project, seemed like they expected to find 100,000+ (or was it 200,000+) genes to account for everything they were thinking about. They only found like 20,000 something, IIRC. So, are all our behaviors passed on via heredity? Or are some from prior lives? Who knows.
We have 30,000 genes but over 100,000 proteins due to mechanisms such as alternative splicing, polyadenylation etc. Gene number does not correlate to behaviour. Our behaviours can be attributed to biologically inherited behaviours (smiling, laughing, walking, running etc) and socially inherited behaviours. There is no need to invoke magic to explain this! As for "who knows" this is an argument from ignorance, the fact that an issue is not 100% explained does not mean that we can shunt ideas with no evidence into the gaps.
Reincarnation is a taboo subject in the West. Most parents in the West, when they here their kid talking about past lives, would send them to the psychiatrist to get doped up on Ritalin. It's typically not be encouraged, nor "advertised". I found out after the fact that this happened with a friends family. The little girl was apparently saying some amazing stuff. They told her she was imagining things, to never talk about it again and discouraged it as much as possible. Of course, they can't remember the specific details now either. Now, at age 12, she has no memory of any of it. A lost case right there.
Nitpick but the West does not equal the US, there are other places in the developed world and we don't have quite the same attitude towards psychiatry as the US might. I always find it odd that people assume that children are not making things up, as a child myself I made up series of past lives that I lived in. Children are highly imaginative and highly suggestive.
Interestingly enough reincarnation was a common belief around the time of early Christianity. Why it lost favor is an interesting study in psychology, in and of itself.
Are you sure? I'd like a citation for that please, it sounds far too much like an urban myth.
If you do any reading on comparitive mythology, or psychological studies of religion, you'll realize for the most part: God=Krishna=Jesus=Yahweh=Allah, etc.
God is a symbol for something transcendent of concepts and language. Each culture dresses up the symbol in ways that pertain to that culture and their view of the world.
If you're interested, try Joseph Campbell - he's one of the better compartitive mythologists out there. He'll give a clear, succinct and academic viewpoint on the topic.
To simplify all religions as same thing that transcends language is ridiculous. There are drastic differences between concepts of a deity between cultures. I was referring to the interesting fact that no-one experiences anything outside of their own real world experience.
This isn't true at all when you say "all accounts". Granted many are like that and many cases are very weak, but they have over 20,000 cases. Did you really look through all of them? UoV is constantly seeking out cases, specifically in the America these days. I personally found some of the "anecdotes" somewhat convincing, as 3rd part members are involved, etc. The figher pilot guy Peter mentioned above is one.
I personally find some of the NDE cases more impressive, and harder to dismiss.
The fact that they are seeking out reincarnations means that they are going to encounter people who have already announced a belief in it. It doesn't matter if you have 20,000 cases or 200,000. This is not science.
I'm afraid you're going to have a long wait. Despite all this, it sounds like you have done a fair amount of investigating and thought about it a bit, which is better than just dismissing it to fit in with the "norm".
Thankyou. I am not waiting for anything however, if reincarnation were real then we would already have seen a variety of phenomenon in the world to corroborate it.