Legitimizing Immorality
| By: Dr. Ted Baehr; ©1999 |
| How can belief in various esoteric religious tenets, such as reincarnation, lead to an increase in immorality? Dr. Baehr explains. |
Contents
Legitimizing IMMORALITY
When the Knight-Rider newspapers carry a religious news service column legitimizing reincarnation, and the Los Angeles Times real estate section defends the occult Chinese practice of Feng-Shui as legitimate, it becomes very clear that America has come a long way from the City on the Hill back to the unbridled paganism and barbarism of yesteryear.
A few astute people may understand reincarnation is an anathema to Christianity. After all, the book of Hebrews tells us quite clearly that “it is appointed for a man to die once and then the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). However, regrettably, many Americans evidently think that re-incarnation offers some hope.
Tom Schroeder, former editor of the Miami-Herald’s Tropics Magazine, has now written a best-selling, false-religious book entitled Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives. This pretentious book attempts to scientifically verify reincarnation, although even the reviews commending the book point out that reincarnation cannot be scientifically verified.
Many valid arguments can be made disputing those who claim to remember their past lives. The psychological case is that these are merely virtual memories. A Christian perspective is that these memories may be induced by demons. The mathematical problem is that there are more humans today than ever, which effectively negates the proposition that each person had past human lives, and so by necessity animal souls must be upgraded to fill up the human bodies, hence eliminating any upgrading by good acts. Finally, the mundane case is that these people are trying to capitalize on their imaginations.
Putting aside all the arguments and scientific analysis or lack thereof, what is wrong with reincarnation? It is not just the fact that a plethora of Americans who are into reincarnation claim to be Cleopatra in their past life, or Napoleon or Julius Caesar. Or, that the new pagans refuse to consider that they might have been a sea slug.
The problem is that reincarnation divorces us further and further from any moral imperative. The biblical judgment that we die once and face judgment imparts wisdom. After all, if you think you are going to face judgment, you are not going to run around killing your classmates. Whereas the false hope of reincarnation suggests that “If I kill my classmates, I’ll come back as an ant, but maybe after that, I’ll come back as the next Napoleon.”
Reincarnation undermines the moral fabric of our society just as effectively as evolution does. It is interesting to note that many who hold to evolution believe in re-incarnation, although they are mutually exclusive. Surveys show that a number of Americans who believe in reincarnation have increased to almost 40 percent of the population. This is the consequence of letting the government strip culture of its Christian foundation. The consequence of this return to paganism will be even more of a disaster.
