Jimmy Akin offers a few philosophical and theological counter-arguments to the concepts of karma and reincarnation, and cites the letter to the Hebrews as the definitive Christian declaration that we die only once before judgement.
Transcript:
Host: Joshua on YouTube Live poses the following question: “How do we disprove reincarnation through philosophy, if that’s the best method for resolution?”
Jimmy: Well, so, it’s an interesting challenge. There…reincarnation is something that you can critique on more than one ground. It is possible to mount a philosophical critique of reincarnation, and point out, for example, there are aspects of reincarnation that are potentially problematic.
Like the idea of karma, that whatever you do is going to bounce back on you, and there’s basically no mercy in the universe, that the universe is a merciless place. And that’s something that doesn’t fully appeal to the human heart. The human heart wants to find mercy in the world, and in fact some adherents of Eastern religions talk about mercy and place a value on mercy. But if the universe is fundamentally merciless, per the law of karma, then that would…then why should they even bother being merciful? Why should that be of value? Well, our hearts tell us that mercy is a value, and so that should tell us that mercy is available in the world, and should be–there should be some room for cosmic mercy in our worldview as well as cosmic justice.
Now, other forms of the idea of reincarnation may incorporate elements of mercy, so they may not respond to that argument. There are other potential arguments as well. For example, sometimes it’s proposed, in these religions that believe in reincarnation, that ultimately everybody is going to end up in an ideal spiritual condition, whether that’s conceived of as Nirvana, or Krishna consciousness, or whatever it may be. But how do you know? How do you know that’s gonna happen? That’s–if the universe is–it just operates kind of mechanically according to karma, people could descend spiritually as easily as they ascend, so what gives you faith that that people are going to ascend? That’s not something that falls right out of the concepts involved, and so you can ask for evidence.
Now ultimately, from a Christian point of view, it’s not a philosophical case against reincarnation that’s going to be the most convincing. From a Christian point of view, the fact that the idea of reincarnation is not compatible with the Christian revelation is what’s going to be most convincing. It’s directly stated in the book of Hebrews that it’s appointed for man once to die, and then the judgment. So we die once, and then we’re judged by God. We don’t die over and over again. That’s the specific idea that was out there in Greek culture that the author of Hebrews is responding to. He’s not just saying that out of the blue, he’s saying that in response to a cultural background where many people did believe in reincarnation. And you find the same theme echoed over and over again in the Church Fathers. You can check out my book “The Fathers Know Best” if you want examples of that.
But from a Christian point of view, I’d say it’s not the philosophical arguments that are ultimately decisive–although they can be helpful. I’d say it’s the Christian revelation, and so in talking with someone who believes in reincarnation, I would either, if they’re already a Christian of some sort, even if they’re at, say, a New Age-er who still has some kind of belief in Christ, I would try to build on that.
I would also say I understand–if they’re not, let’s say they’re Hindu–I would say “I understand and respect your position; here’s why I don’t believe in reincarnation, and let’s talk about the basis of the Christian faith, then. Because if the Christian faith has a good basis, that means you would want to take its teachings–like resurrection is our fate, not reincarnation–you’d want to take those seriously too, so let’s talk about the reasons why one should take the Christian faith seriously. And to your knowledge, was there ever a time where maybe a Christian group or something grasped on to–ignored, for example, that admonition from the letter to the Hebrews, and nonetheless believed–” You find scattered instances all the way down through history, because, you know, people get crazy ideas that are inconsistent with the teaching of the Church in every age.
And certainly that’s been true in recent in in recent times. In the last 150 years there has been a lot of interaction between East and West, and various groups have tried to hybridize eastern and western religious concepts, like the Theosophical Society and the New Age movement and things like that. So you do find people who are trying to kind of straddle that east-west divide these days.