Dennis Prager Show - Reincarnation...Real or Fake?
Aired: 2024-05-16
Duration: 09:41


=== Belief in Reincarnation (09:36) ===

[00:00:00]  Do you believe in...
[00:00:03]  Is that the word?
[00:00:05]  Because reincarnation has two meanings.
[00:00:08]  You come back in your own body at some point, or you come back as another person in the next life.
[00:00:15]  It's a very common belief.
[00:00:17]  By the way, it's held by all sorts of people you might not expect.
[00:00:25]  I know that in...
[00:00:28]  In mystical Orthodox Judaism, there is a belief, Gilgul Nefashot, the transmigration of souls.
[00:00:39]  Now, I happen not to believe in this.
[00:00:42]  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.
[00:00:59]  But I don't believe that I come back as another person.
[00:01:02]  It's a tempting belief because, let's say, you know, what if you're a baby that dies?
[00:01:07]  That's it?
[00:01:08]  Is that your whole chance at existence?
[00:01:10]  For the people who believe in reincarnation, well, that baby will come back just as another human being.
[00:01:25]  But if you have no remembrance of who you were in the past life, for all intents and purposes, you're dead anyway.
[00:01:34]  If you're Joe Smith in this life, and you come back as Mary Gonzalez, Joe Smith is dead.
[00:01:47]  Now you say, Joe Smith's soul continues, but Joe Smith's soul is not aware.
[00:01:54]  At least, has not transmitted that awareness to Mary Gonzalez.
[00:01:58]  You are really Joe Smith.
[00:02:00]  On the other hand, to be fair, I have a close friend who studied hypnosis.
[00:02:07]  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.
[00:02:18]  She described...
[00:02:19]  I don't know where it was.
[00:02:23]  So Oregon?
[00:02:24]  She was in Oregon.
[00:02:25]  Oh yeah, you know this really well.
[00:02:27]  Oh yeah.
[00:02:28]  So remind me, what was she?
[00:02:32]  She was on a wagon train?
[00:02:34]  And the details she knew, I don't even think she'd ever been to Oregon.
[00:02:40]  Not in this life anyway.
[00:02:42]  And she knew details of the crossing of Oregon, which really only somebody who did it...
[00:02:51]  Or had studied for years Oregon wagon trains, which I suspect she didn't study, would know.
[00:03:02]  So I want you to understand, I don't have passion on this subject.
[00:03:10]  It may be true that we do come back as somebody else.
[00:03:17]  Now call 1-8 Prager 776. 877-243-7776 Do you believe in this?
[00:03:28]  Are you skeptical?
[00:03:31]  Are you antipathetic?
[00:03:35]  How do you react to it?
[00:03:41]  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,
[00:04:02]  that you come back in this life and it's a reward or a punishment based on how you acted in a previous life.
[00:04:13]  But then why would I want to show pity to somebody who's suffering in this life?
[00:04:20]  If I believe that they were evil in the last life and that's why they were suffering.
[00:04:27]  I don't know the answer to that one either.
[00:04:34]  877-243-7776 Do you know somebody who believes in it?
[00:04:42]  Do you believe in it?
[00:04:43]  Do you reject it?
[00:04:44]  Do you think it's more than wrong?
[00:04:46]  It's actually against your faith.
[00:04:50]  Or your moral convictions, whatever it might be.
[00:04:56]  1-8 Prager 776. Alright, let's see what you folks have to say here.
[00:05:05]  Santa Clarita, California, and Sean, hello.
[00:05:09]  Hey Dennis, how are you today?
[00:05:11]  Really well, thank you.
[00:05:14]  So, in a Philosophy 101 class, I gave quite a few examples.
[00:05:18]  Of why I reject it, but I end with this strong one.
[00:05:22]  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.
[00:05:29]  While I'm at work, that family member sexually abuses my child.
[00:05:35]  Now, in karma or reincarnation, something my child did in a previous lifetime demanded that this would happen to him in this lifetime.
[00:05:45]  And so my question to my professor was, should I call the police, or should I just let karma act out?
[00:05:52]  Yeah, well, that was what I raised as a problem.
[00:05:55]  If all suffering is merited, you did such awful things in past life, why would I feel bad for you, let alone help you?
[00:06:06]  You're right, you're not allowing karma to work itself through if you help the person.
[00:06:11]  I have one historical example, if you have the time.
[00:06:14]  If you're brief, I have the time.
[00:06:17]  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.
[00:06:30]  And the reason is, is because Buddha said you're an island unto yourself.
[00:06:34]  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.
[00:06:47]  Well, I'd love a Buddhist to respond.
[00:06:52]  What you said made sense to me, but I would like to have a Buddhist response.
[00:06:58]  I had a Buddhist monk on my first radio show.
[00:07:02]  My first radio show was called Religion on the Line.
[00:07:04]  It was on ABC in L.A. It was an incredibly popular show.
[00:07:10]  And I don't take credit for it.
[00:07:11]  I inherited a popular show.
[00:07:13]  I made it more popular, but I inherited one.
[00:07:16]  Priest, rabbi, minister, different ones each week.
[00:07:18]  After five years, I opened it up to every religion on earth.
[00:07:23]  And I had virtually every religion on earth.
[00:07:26]  I had a Buddhist monk on once.
[00:07:28]  And I said, because this was the way I could bounce off my understanding of religions off people who practice it.
[00:07:35]  That was the best.
[00:07:36]  It was a blessing from God I had that show.
[00:07:39]  Ten years to the week.
[00:07:42]  So I said to him, I said, I just want to understand something.
[00:07:48]  Is it the Buddhist ideal that if you lose a loved one, you don't lament, you don't cry?
[00:08:04]  That's the way of things, and you accept it, and you don't...
[00:08:09]  Because you don't place your emotional world in the hands of others, as it were.
[00:08:16]  Anyway, he said, yes, ideally you would not cry.
[00:08:20]  That's right, if you were a Buddhist.
[00:08:25]  Because he didn't have children, he was a monk.
[00:08:28]  So I used a brother or sister as the example.
[00:08:37]  So people work these things out if they can.
[00:08:43]  Yeah, San Fernando, California.
[00:08:46]  Joe, hello.
[00:08:50]  Hello, Joe.
[00:08:51]  Hello, Mr. Breger.
[00:08:51]  I'm not going to ask you how you are because you're wonderful, period.
[00:08:54]  Thank you.
[00:08:55]  That's sweet.
[00:08:59]  I definitely reject it to the fact that in this universe of everything, most things do have a purpose.
[00:09:08]  And if we come back and we don't have any memory of past life, what's the point?
[00:09:13]  It's a real waste of time.
[00:09:15]  That is common sense religiously.
[00:09:19]  Right, so I fully understand that.

=== No Great Religious Answer (00:19) ===

[00:09:23]  But I want you to understand nobody has a good answer to many of these problems.
[00:09:30]  What do you do with a baby that has suffered?
[00:09:34]  I'll keep you on because I'm curious.
[00:09:38]  There's no great religious answer to that either.