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Rebirth-A Philosophical Study
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is likely to show that each of us exists through all time - past and future - whether time is held finite or infinite. Every individual self is an eternally self-subsistent spirit, timeless in experience. Self expression of the individual self in and through time process should assume the form of a vastly long chain of repeated births. He takes his stand on metaphysical ground and
that it is capable of yielding apriori certainty. Self is a substance existing in its own right and the universe consists of a society of such eternally self-subsistent selves. As substances, selves have neither beginning nor end of life and therefore each of us exists through all times, past and future 21 As we have no memory of any previous existence, we must assume a plurality of lives linked together by successive deaths and rebirths. Dr. McTaggart presents the doctrine of plurality of lives - of future and past lives. He says that the consequences of the truth of pre-existence and plurality of lives would be that the existence of a person before and after the present would be divided into many lives each bound by birth and death.
Dr. McTaggart mentions and answers a few objections against the doctrine of pre-existence and plurality of lives on the basis of metaphysical and psychological considerations. We may here state a few of his considerations.
1. Man's progress bas been in the direction of attaining perfection gradually as it is difficult to believe that full perfection will be attained in one single life. And if our existence immediately after the present life is imperfect and a state of improvement and advance, this life would be followed by others like it, each separated by its predecessors and succe. ssors by death and rebirth,
2. There are many features of our present life which can be explained more satisfactorily by the theory of pre-existence than by any other.
(a) Two persons are often drawn to each other by a force equal to that which is generated in other cases by years of mutual understanding. Similarly love at first sight and deeper attachments of individuals seen only for some time are examples which can be explained by the theory of pre-existence. 2 2
(b) As a man grows up certain tendencies and qualities make themselves manifest in him. These are innate as they cannot be entirely due to environment. Some men have innate powers of judging men, some others have calm and serene virtues. Attempts are made to explain the presence of such innate qualities by heredity. But such innate dispositions may often occur in cases where nothing of the sort can be traced among ancestors.
21. McTaggart (J. M.): Some Dogmas of Religion. p. 116. 22. Ibid. p. 124.
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