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May 16, 2024 - Dennis Prager Show
09:41
Reincarnation...Real or Fake?
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Do you believe in...
Is that the word?
Because reincarnation has two meanings.
You come back in your own body at some point, or you come back as another person in the next life.
It's a very common belief.
By the way, it's held by all sorts of people you might not expect.
I know that in...
In mystical Orthodox Judaism, there is a belief, Gilgul Nefashot, the transmigration of souls.
Now, I happen not to believe in this.
I believe that there is a heaven, I believe there is a hell, or if you will, in more, not sophisticated, but acceptable language, I believe that there is punishment and reward after death.
But I don't believe that I come back as another person.
It's a tempting belief because, let's say, you know, what if you're a baby that dies?
That's it?
Is that your whole chance at existence?
For the people who believe in reincarnation, well, that baby will come back just as another human being.
But if you have no remembrance of who you were in the past life, for all intents and purposes, you're dead anyway.
If you're Joe Smith in this life, and you come back as Mary Gonzalez, Joe Smith is dead.
Now you say, Joe Smith's soul continues, but Joe Smith's soul is not aware.
At least, has not transmitted that awareness to Mary Gonzalez.
You are really Joe Smith.
On the other hand, to be fair, I have a close friend who studied hypnosis.
He hypnotized a young woman many years ago who believed that she was on a, I believe, a 19th century caravan in the United States.
She described...
I don't know where it was.
So Oregon?
She was in Oregon.
Oh yeah, you know this really well.
Oh yeah.
So remind me, what was she?
She was on a wagon train?
And the details she knew, I don't even think she'd ever been to Oregon.
Not in this life anyway.
And she knew details of the crossing of Oregon, which really only somebody who did it...
Or had studied for years Oregon wagon trains, which I suspect she didn't study, would know.
So I want you to understand, I don't have passion on this subject.
It may be true that we do come back as somebody else.
Now call 1-8 Prager 776. 877-243-7776 Do you believe in this?
Are you skeptical?
Are you antipathetic?
How do you react to it?
The problem of the unjust suffering in this life is so great that people have devised many, many But I was raising the difficult issue of karma in Hinduism,
that you come back in this life and it's a reward or a punishment based on how you acted in a previous life.
But then why would I want to show pity to somebody who's suffering in this life?
If I believe that they were evil in the last life and that's why they were suffering.
I don't know the answer to that one either.
877-243-7776 Do you know somebody who believes in it?
Do you believe in it?
Do you reject it?
Do you think it's more than wrong?
It's actually against your faith.
Or your moral convictions, whatever it might be.
1-8 Prager 776. Alright, let's see what you folks have to say here.
Santa Clarita, California, and Sean, hello.
Hey Dennis, how are you today?
Really well, thank you.
So, in a Philosophy 101 class, I gave quite a few examples.
Of why I reject it, but I end with this strong one.
Let's say I get called to work on an emergency and I have to call a friend or family member to come watch my young child.
While I'm at work, that family member sexually abuses my child.
Now, in karma or reincarnation, something my child did in a previous lifetime demanded that this would happen to him in this lifetime.
And so my question to my professor was, should I call the police, or should I just let karma act out?
Yeah, well, that was what I raised as a problem.
If all suffering is merited, you did such awful things in past life, why would I feel bad for you, let alone help you?
You're right, you're not allowing karma to work itself through if you help the person.
I have one historical example, if you have the time.
If you're brief, I have the time.
Okay, the killing fields in Cambodia, there were Christian organizations in Buddhist countries handling all the Buddhist refugees, but there were no Buddhist organizations helping their fellow Buddhists.
And the reason is, is because Buddha said you're an island unto yourself.
And so that was the distinction that the Judeo-Christian view of compassion was taking care of these refugees, whereas the Buddhist understanding rejected compassion.
Well, I'd love a Buddhist to respond.
What you said made sense to me, but I would like to have a Buddhist response.
I had a Buddhist monk on my first radio show.
My first radio show was called Religion on the Line.
It was on ABC in L.A. It was an incredibly popular show.
And I don't take credit for it.
I inherited a popular show.
I made it more popular, but I inherited one.
Priest, rabbi, minister, different ones each week.
After five years, I opened it up to every religion on earth.
And I had virtually every religion on earth.
I had a Buddhist monk on once.
And I said, because this was the way I could bounce off my understanding of religions off people who practice it.
That was the best.
It was a blessing from God I had that show.
Ten years to the week.
So I said to him, I said, I just want to understand something.
Is it the Buddhist ideal that if you lose a loved one, you don't lament, you don't cry?
That's the way of things, and you accept it, and you don't...
Because you don't place your emotional world in the hands of others, as it were.
Anyway, he said, yes, ideally you would not cry.
That's right, if you were a Buddhist.
Because he didn't have children, he was a monk.
So I used a brother or sister as the example.
So people work these things out if they can.
Yeah, San Fernando, California.
Joe, hello.
Hello, Joe.
Hello, Mr. Breger.
I'm not going to ask you how you are because you're wonderful, period.
Thank you.
That's sweet.
I definitely reject it to the fact that in this universe of everything, most things do have a purpose.
And if we come back and we don't have any memory of past life, what's the point?
It's a real waste of time.
That is common sense religiously.
Right, so I fully understand that.
But I want you to understand nobody has a good answer to many of these problems.
What do you do with a baby that has suffered?
I'll keep you on because I'm curious.
There's no great religious answer to that either.
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