[JosephineB]

Originally Posted by Altair

This is one of the biggest questions in spirituality..

Religions that believe in reincarnation usually postulate that the soul is divine and perfect. What then is it that incarnates and needs to 'learn'? They will say it's something else that collects the karma, and they will say that there never was a beginning of this cycle [and yet, it can end (!), apparently]. It does not make much sense.

However, I do agree on one thing: the soul must necessarily be divine and perfect, which means it is the temporary identity or identities that ''play the game'' of reincarnation, if we indeed assume that this occurs [most people have no past life memories...].

The idea of the world being some sort of school however is just silly, and does not align with what we know occurs in nature as a matter of fact. There's really no higher or lower, just species that have adapted to specific environments, and with one large comet all 'intelligent' life could be wiped out. It is that chaotic part of reality, the randomness, that religions/spirituality do not like to recognize and accept. To them, everything must have ''meaning'', ''creation'' and there is something ''planned''. Of course, these are just more human projections. Complexity is not the same as man-made order.

The SF member Bartholomew described the soul not being born in perfection but in innocence. And the goal is not the acquisition of knowledge but wisdom. This seemed to make more sense to me. On the other hand we could be living in a matrix and being used. I've not made my mind up yet.