Why Reincarnation Makes Sense

Andrew Pennebaker
Religion 100-003
Spring 2008
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What happens when a person dies? Physically, his body decays until he loses consciousness. His

tissue rots. His bones break. As time passes, there is nothing left of him. This is too disparaging for his

family, too empty for himself. To all but the sternest atheists, this clinical description is not enough.

That is why spiritual explanations abound. They are many and diverse, from Aboriginal Dreamtime to

Voodoo zombies. They give meaning to death and help both the living and the dead come to terms.

To most of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic faiths, death signals the end of willful acts in the world.

There is a time of judgement, described as both a personal determination as well as a global

determination (Judgement Day)i. Those that lead a good life end up in Heaven. Those that lead a bad

life spend an eternity of pain in Hell. The model is simple enough: The World is one big test of faith.

Death is the calculation of the individual's spiritual score. Every action that follows the word of God

increases the score, and every action that is evil decreases the score (negative scores are possible). The

test is taken once, with an outcome of either pass or fail. Once a person reaches Heaven or Hell, he

remains in that final state forever ii. Each person has one chance to prove himself and suffers the

consequences indefinitely should he fail.

Other religions describe the afterlife differently. Eastern ideology tends to depict the final state

as a joining with the Universe. Instead of a single life, each person experiences several, accumulating

good and bad karma along the way. At the end of each life, he is reincarnated with a new body

according to his spiritual progress (or regress). In this way, everyone will eventually become pure. A

person is given as many times as he needs to get a perfect score. Each time he raises his grade, his next

life gives him a better opportunity to reach liberation. Life and death are experienced continually, until

he becomes the best person he can be, when he leaves this world (Moksha, Nirvana).

Reincarnation if often misunderstood and improperly portrayed. If it seems weird or silly,

consider that resurrection makes as much or less sense. Suffering an eternity in Hell is an unjust

sentence for sins with a finite amount of evil. In the physical realm, there are lands considered uncivil
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and wicked, where punishments include ice baths, food deprivation, sexual assault, walking over

broken glass, burning, and far more unimaginable pains are inflicted iii. Even there, where the harshest

forms of punishment are given, the duration of the punishments are finite: No one is whipped forever.

To forever be punished in the afterlife for a limited number of sins is less righteous than even these.

The relation between acts and punishments is the very criterion defining just and unjust systems.

Another problem with Heaven/Hell duality concerns award based on merit. As before, even a

human example can show the irrationality of this ideology. A student student can study for many hours,

avoiding food and sleep. By studying so diligently he can pass a course. More often, students will study

the bare minimum and obtain the exact same result. Similarly, when a person strives his absolute

hardest to be righteous, following all the orders and remembering all the rituals, he will rise to Heaven

—along with every soul who morally squeaked by. Those that just a little more evil share their homes

with the most horrid murderers in Hell. When someone feels he has done evil sufficient for

punishment, he concludes that he might as well do whatever he wants, because he will receive the same

punishment nevertheless. The desert religions share one flaw: diminishing returns. The New York Sun

once printed a response to a young girl’s question, “Is there a Santa Claus?” In a mighty twist of irony,

Dial-the-Truth Ministries printed out a word-for-word copy replacing “Santa Claus” with

“Hell.”iv The authors did not recognize how alarming and how hilarious it is for church authorities to

use the same arguments for Christian concepts that parents use to delude their children.

Some say that because God is perfectly just, he correctly rewards and punishes every person

according to his deeds. More faithful people go to higher heavens, and more evil people go to lower

hells. But Heaven is perfectly good, and Hell is perfectly evil. If a person is in any circle of Heaven, he

is still in Heaven. If a person is in any circle of Hell, he is still in Hell. Does it matter which kind of ‘A’

he gets if he succeeds? Does it matter which ‘F’ he gets if he fails?

At first, reincarnation seems quite similar to the more popular ideologies. At one level
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reincarnation is only an extension of the original Zoroastrian model. Instead of taking the world test

once, people take it over and over until they become perfect. A major difference occurs in that rewards

and punishment are doled out in life rather than death. This is crucial, because in resurrection theories,

people passively receive the fruits of their labor. In contrast, reincarnation theories allow these fruits

are received in life, where people can accept them gratefully, ignore them, or reject them, generating

more karma. They have more opportunities to choose good and evil, more pop quizzes rather than a

final exam. In this way, reincarnation is more inclusive in its measurement of righteousness, because it

takes into account how one accepts gain and loss in relation to his spiritual progress. Does he gloat

from his success, or is he modest? How does he accept suffering?

Just as Christians and Muslims differ in their opinions of resurrection, there are different

opinions of the true nature of reincarnation. Historically, Hinduism has used reincarnation to justify its

caste system, a power-driven hierarchyv. The untouchables were the lowest social class, considered so

spiritually impure that even being near them was bad. Only the high priests had access to religious rites

and knowledge, and only they had the ability to enter Moksha. The situation was so bad that the

Buddha and Guru Nanak sought to reform these misleading practices and dogmas. To this day, Hindus

regard Buddhists and Sikhs as segments of their own, regardless of how Buddhists and Sikhs feel

themselvesvi.

The Buddha thought that the excesses of courtly life and the destitution of the low class were

equally bad. Rather than pursuing pleasure or pain, Buddha taught to take the middle path between

them. This extends even to the afterlife, at which point Buddhists believe not only bad karma, but also

good karma must be burnt up. To stay in a minor circle of Heaven can delay one from reaching

Nirvana. While the Buddha was satisfied once he made his discovery, he decided to spend his life

teaching it to others. The practice held in high esteem. Bodhisattvas choose rebirth over Nirvana in

order to help others. In this way, personal salvation is guaranteed but delayed for global salvation. Thus
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the Buddhist ideology of life and death aligns with the Buddhist values of wisdom and compassion.

Guru Nanak likewise felt that there was something wrong with the world. He strove to stop the

mindless and harmful traditions that had been in place. So special are humans that Sikhs treat them

equally, regardless of gender, social class, or otherwise. Sikh writing declares that God created

everyone the same, no matter their appearance. As in Buddhism, not only the human form the only one

in which one can be liberated; to be born a human at all is a rare and special thing. Here, reincarnation

is not a tool used to keep people down, but a reminder of how all of humanity is connected. The idea

that some people go to Heaven and others to Hell suggests that people are either good or bad.

Reincarnation on the other hand says that all will eventually find their good side given enough time, in

this life or the next. Reincarnation unites whereas Resurrectionism divides. Not only does reincarnation

make more sense, but it encourages humanism—an idea taught in the desert religions but often left out

at critical moments.
i Quran 13:25
ii Revelations 20:10
iii A Catalogue of Torture
iv Yes, Virginia
v Bollywood
vi Offspring