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Originally posted by politikalamity:

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Originally posted by antabanta:
We can argue that even the physical isn't gone - if dead trees can go into the earth and transform into such a vast resource of fuel doesn't it make sense that the physical nature of dead people may also do the same?

Exactly - energy cannot be created nor destroyed. Hence, the only thing that can happen is the change of the form. Trees to fossil fuels, to heat etc… IMO this is reincarnation.

In a true sense nothing is ever dead. But the consciousness of a particular body dies when that body changes form and the energy is dispersed.

In the end, both the physical and sprit of a physical form is gone once that physical structure changes form in the dispersion of its energy. Any new physical manifestation has its own spirit.

To say that people will be reborn as a certain thing depending on how one lives his life has no scientific basis IMO. This is not to say that one should not live what is considered a life with high morals and respect for all things, because that will lead to a life with less noise and a good spirit in better harmony with all things.

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Originally posted by antabanta:

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I was thinking more along the line that the essence of a being is never gone if it lives on as part of a greater whole.

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Also, transforming from one form to another may only be possible if the original form possessed latent qualities of the new form.

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Which would mean that some of the new was already present in the old, therefore vice versa stands to reason.
Of course this is just idle speculation.