Reincarnation, which literally means “to be made flesh again,” is the belief that after death the soul lives on in another body, is believed by many around the world. Is it reasonable to hold this belief? Trent Horn gives reasons why we should reject the theory of reincarnation.
Transcript:
Reincarnation, which literally means “to be made flesh again,” is the belief that after death the soul lives on in another body. But the Catechism states, “‘It is appointed for men to die once’ (Heb. 9:27). There is no ‘reincarnation’ after death” (CCC 1013).
Members of the early Church offered three reasons to reject the idea of reincarnation.
First, in the fourth century St. Ambrose said that it would be impossible that “the soul which rules man should take on itself the nature of a beast so opposed to that of man.” In other words, despite what you might see in movies, the migration of souls between human and animal bodies is as impossible as procreation between humans and animals.
Second, humans do not behave as if they possessed souls that lived before the birth of their bodies. The third-century ecclesial writer Tertullian put it this way: “If souls depart at different ages of human life, how is it that they come back again at one uniform age? For all men are imbued with an infant soul at their birth.”
The absence of animals and infants who act like mature adults is evidence against the theory of reincarnation. Of course, a defender of reincarnation could say that although a person’s soul inhabits a new body, his memories and personality do not. But this makes reincarnation the practical equivalent of not surviving death. It also raises the question St. Irenaeus asked in the second century: “If we don’t remember anything before our conception, then how do advocates of reincarnation know we’ve all been reincarnated?”
Third, there is “the population argument.” Proponents of reincarnation claim new souls are never created or destroyed. Instead, souls are only “reborn” into other bodies. But, in Tertullian’s words, “If the living come from the dead, just as the dead proceed from the living, then there must always remain unchanged one and the selfsame number of mankind.” He noted (and modern science has confirmed) that there has been a “gradual growth of [the human] population.” This growth, which can be explained only by new souls coming into existence, conflicts with the notion of the perpetual reincarnation of the same souls into different bodies.
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I’m Trent Horn for Catholic Answers, and thanks for watching.