Reincarnation

Do human beings live only once, or are we granted the opportunity to return after death and experience many different lives? The question of reincarnation has been examined for thousands of years and has been embraced in various degrees by numerous religions. Scientists speculate that even the people who lived during the New Stone Age (10,000B.C.E - 5,000B.C.E.) believed that once a person died, their journey had not yet concluded (Christie-Murray p.16). Because ideas about a society that lived so long ago are frequently not concrete and can be difficult for present day culture to grasp, many scholars point towards Hinduism as being one of the earliest religions to offer explanations of reincarnation. Hinduism, originating sometime during the fourth millennium BCE is the most ancient of the surviving great religions (Christie-Murray p.30). The adoption of the belief of rebirth can be found in Hindu scriptures dating around 600 BCE As time progressed, suggestions of reincarnation began to be found in Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, and Christianity. While this is certainly not a complete list, or a statement that each of these religions embraces and in turn teaches the theory of rebirth, it does she

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However, this statement is made without the consideration that you do not return to the same life and are not even in the same body. The question of rebirth will most likely always remained unanswered but there is enough evidence to embrace it as a possibility. Even though one may not remember their past life, the experiences are forever ingrained in their soul. Hopefully, each member of society would appreciate how everything is interconnected and strive to act in a just manner and gain valuable experiences as they continue of the journey of lives. When a child is born, it is a time for family and friends to guess what is in store for this new life and what kind of person the child will grow to be. In addition to the search about what transpires posthumously, many people see reincarnation as an explanation for many of the great questions about life. Sir Edwin Arnold expressed this idea in his translation of The Bhagavad Gita: Never the spirit was born; The spirit shall cease to be never; Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are Dreams; Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit forever; Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems (Hodson, p. However, the reaction may not be received in during the current life (Hodson, p. Christianity does not embrace reincarnation and teaches that once a person dies, their soul can go to Heaven, Hell, or in some cases Purgatory. Reincarnation is widely excepted as a fact in Eastern cultures and it will be interesting to see if the Western biases can be eliminated. According to Carl Jung, the fact that people speak about reincarnation means that it exists. Therefore, the reaching the fullness of Christ would be impossible in a single life.

Approximate Word count = 1817
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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