I don’t believe in reincarnation in the sense that I can be born again on this planet as a dog or something. More like whatever makes you “you” was possible in a universe where it probably shouldn’t have been possible. I believe in the Big bounce theory even though a lot of evidence says this is not true, the universe is definitely expanding at an insane rate. I like to think that all matter in the universe eventually comes together in one supermassive black hole and somewhere in that matter soup, another big bang happens. Maybe this time around life doesn’t happen, but maybe after a trillion iterations it does and whatever makes you “you” could happen again. You’d have no memory of it, you’d just be aware of being alive again. If there is just the heat death of the universe and nothing ever happens again then so be it, I was fine before I was born anyway.

How I see it is that you are meat “matter” right now. When you die your meat matter is eaten by worms and flys (maybe). Some worms and flys then become part of the animal that eats them. Some of your meat matter becomes plant matter. You are not you anymore but you are now other parts of this earth. Obviously there is no consciousness that follows but your energy and your matter live on in different forms.

Edit: maybe there is a spiritual side that moves on a different path from the meatbag side which moves into a different vessel to experience life and the universe in a different way?

I think when we die, we rejoin the essential je ne sais quoi of what makes reality what it is. It wouldn’t surprise me if that essence is reused in other things. It won’t be me, as I am now. It’ll be parts of me and parts of everything else, making something entirely new.

I’ve sort of always believed in reincarnation, though I can’t recall the first time I was introduced to the concept. I feel like the universe is very cyclical, so why not reincarnation? Although I guess I’m not sure how much of us gets “carried over” into the next life. What makes us “us”? What part of us would be passed on to the next life? I definitely feel like I’ve been here before, though it would be hard to explain why, and perhaps I’m just mistaking that feeling.

For the same reason as people who believe in religion, comfort against the scary reality of the fragility of life.

I don’t, but a compelling story is presented in The Egg by Kurzgesagt. https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI

I don’t believe in reincarnation, but my mother did, based on childhood experiences. It sounded convincing to me as she told it.

Personally, as far as I can tell, when you’re dead you’re dead.

I don’t believe in it, but here’s a very popular short story that uses reincarnation in a clever way:

https://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

I want to believe in it because the thought of hell or oblivion fucking existentially terrifies me. I like being a human. Or at least a sentient self aware creature.

But I don’t know what to believe because I don’t know the truth. :(

My thoughts was from a comic a while back that each time you die you are reborn into someone else, any time, and place, the concept was that you are everyone else but without the memories of your previous yous. And the point was to learn and understand every view and everything.

The reason is because it made me more accepting and humble to others thinking there life is mine just born different with different circumstances.

I don’t necessarily believe in it, but I have had the thought that if it was real the reason it hasn’t been proven could very well be that it’s super duper hard to come back as a human and not as, like, a protozoa or even be on Earth. The universe is pretty damn huge; possibly infinite. The chances of coming back as the same thing in the same place are exceptionally small.

I forgor 💀

The physical law of the “do-over”

I recently (re-)read Robert Lanza’s “Observer” and there are some trippy ideas in there that have me rethinking what reincarnation could mean.

I’m an atheist so I don’t actually belive in reincarnation, but it’s a nice idea. I get the appeal.