Who is the Karma Judge? (Reincarnation Rethink)

 

Dear friends:

If you believe in reincarnation, you better know who is the karma judge, right? If all of us are re-incarnations of prior human beings, how do we account for the growing population? Where do “new” humans come from?

If achieving “nirvana” means that we will be liberated from the illusion of consciousness, how then will we know (be conscious of) our achieving this “nirvana”? How can we be “conscious” of this, if “consciousness” will no longer exist?

There are a few related questions and issues for you to think about. Thanks to a homicide detective J Warner Wallace who lists 12 plus issues in the following link 22 Important Questions for the Buddhist Worldview. 

Here I will just post a few below for you.

...3. If our present suffering is the result of bad karma from a prior life, what is the real present remedy for suffering in this life?

Can all suffering be alleviated in this life through our efforts with the Eight Fold Path? Why engage in any effort related to the Eight Fold Path, if the only true benefits are to be realized in the next life?

4. Who is the Karma Judge?

If, as Buddhism teaches, there is no personal God interacting with His creation, who determines whether or not a person has done something to merit either “good” or “bad” Karma? If this decision is made at the end of one’s life, who is actually making the decision? How can an impersonal force “decide” anything? Who is the final judge of Karma, and mustn’t this judge by necessity be a personal being (capable of making a decision)?

5. If achieving “nirvana” means that we will be liberated from the illusion of consciousness, how then will we know (be conscious of) our achieving this “nirvana”? How can we be “conscious” of this, if “consciousness” will no longer exist?

Our existence outside the material, physical world, presumes a conscious existence in which we can “realize” our enlightened condition. How can we be conscious of this if consciousness will no longer exist?

6. If there is no transcendent “self” or “soul”, how do we transcend this life in order for reincarnation to be possible?

If reincarnation is true, it makes sense something of our true identity would move from one life to the next. What is this “something” if not a soul? Who (or what) moves on from this life to the next?

7. What real evidence do we have that reincarnation is true?

Why is there not consistent evidence for the notion of reincarnation? On what evidence is this idea based, aside from the writings of Buddha? While we have good philosophical reasons to believe in the existence of the soul, what philosophical reasoning brings us to the conclusion that reincarnation is true?

8. If all of us are re-incarnations of prior human beings, how do we account for the growing population? Where do “new” humans come from?

Reincarnation implies all of us were here before, in a prior life. But if humans can only be reincarnated from prior humans, how is it the global population is growing? If humans can be reincarnated from other animals, does this mean the total animal population on earth has always been constant?...

In conclusion, every worldview has to be both internally and externally consistent. The challenge for Buddhism is to account for a system of judgment and reward (Karma) without a personal judge who has the ability to decide whether an individual has achieved something noble or committed something despicable. The very judge required by a Karma system is, in fact, lacking from Buddhism altogether. In addition, there are many open philosophical questions related to the first question of all worldviews (“How did we get here?”), and the system seems to lead (in many formations) to a sense of despair and hopelessness...

- See more at: http://coldcasechristianity.com/2014/22-important-questions-for-the-buddhistic-worldview/?

For those who read Chinese, a couple related links from my Chinese blog for you below.

一位深入禪宗醫生的大開悟?

阿彌陀佛 的 真相 (轉貼