“Damien, I would like your thoughts on reincarnation and do some atheist believe in it or would they not be considered atheist if so??? Also thank you for the all you have shared the last few years. I have gotten answers to many of my questions by following you. Embarrassingly I come to realize I am atheist at age 35 so I am still going through some pretty tough things. Including much depression at times.” – Questener
My response, “First thanks for your acknowledgment. You should be proud because I didn’t become an atheist until 36 in college. I to was embarrassed that I had believed without ever even doubting. Now I realize how great that I finally woke up and can help others. Second one is an atheist if they don’t believe in gods. That’s it but how they reached that conclusion or sustain that understanding that there is no justification for belief in gods is likely a belief in the natural world as it presents itself which is only natural completely devoid of any thing supporting a supernatural anything. And analytical and critical thinking applied to such understanding should motivate any and all rationally honest thinkers to realize the only support the god claims have is faith an emotional driven desire to believe. And sense emotion and feelings are not a valid method to know or confirm anything in knowledge acquisition it’s assertions are meaningless and invalid thus one must reflect the baseless god talk. Third reincarnation is a bogus assumption that requires at the least a human soul or the like to continue on after death but this is nonsense compared to the reality of the world. Thus yes if one is an naturalistic thinker as an atheist as to me all atheists should be as that is reality then they cannot believe in such unsupported conjecture unattachable to the facts. One could still believe such an emotional supportive position as reincarnation and still not believe in gods but they would not have rational grounds to justify such reality contrary wild assertions as reincarnation.”
Reincarnation is a false belief.
There is no evidence to support it and there is also logistical problems with reincarnation as well as past lives.
According to a very thoughtful post from January 16, 2012 called
An anonymous author exposed six logical problems:
1. Why do some have past life memories, but most don’t? Do only some reincarnate but not others? Ref
2. What if a fetus is born, but no “souls” want to enter it? Then what? Ref
3. Wouldn’t all souls want to be born into beautiful rich families with a good life? Who would choose to be born in a war-torn country in poverty? Do souls even get a choice? If not, then who chooses? Some intelligent forces or random ones? Ref
4. Since the world population 30 years ago was half of what it is today, where do all the “extra souls” come from? Are they new souls? Are they souls from other planets or dimensions? Or from animals and insects? If from animals and insects, then where are the souls replenishing the evolving ones coming from? Is there a first life? Or does our past have no beginning? Ref
5. A lot of reincarnation believers use the “souls coming from other planets/dimensions” explanation, but that sounds like a convenient copout since anyone can just say that. But even if we take that explanation, then where are the souls replacing the migrating souls coming from? Wouldn’t there have to be new souls entering in at some point, unless the population of souls always remained the same? Ref
6. Since there are far more insects and plants then humans and animals, then would that mean that in your next life, your chances of coming back as an insect or plant are far infinitely greater than coming back as a human? If so, then no one would look forward to their “next life” would they? Or do humans only reincarnate as other humans or higher? Can an animal reincarnate as a human? If so, then couldn’t it work the other way around? Ref