LH: Okay, if you mean that we might change our minds, or grow into or out of certain ideas, then I agree with you completely.

Moving on to the next topic...

I agree that there were certain people who believed in reincarnation in the early years of the Christian church, but I also believe they were (as far as the church was concerned) heretics and theoretical outsiders, and they were booted out of the church for that reason. (St. Paul, in one of his letters, says it is appointed for human beings to live just once; this has always been interpreted by the Fathers and Mothers of the ancient church as ruling out reincarnation as a Christian doctrine.) But being booted out of the church is not the same thing as being "destroyed." I really don't know about the early church trying to "destroy" people who believed in reincarnation -- the Stoa in Athens, for example, continued to teach reincarnation well into the 6th century. Saying that reincarnation is not a Christian belief is not the same thing as saying people who are not Christians have no right to believe it.

Truly the medieval church went overboard in persecuting "heretics" (whether real or imagined) and for that all Christendom must feel shame and sorrow. As you say both Rome and Constantinople have sinned in this area. If it helps any (probably not), I am sorry this happened and wish it hadn't.

I will agree with you that a huge number of people (I don't know enough to say whether it's a majority or not) in the world believe in reincarnation. Of course as you yourself would admit, metaphysical truth is not a matter of voting. If reincarnation is true, then it's true whether or not anybody believes in it, and if it's not true, it's not true, even if 99-44/100% of the world's population believes in it. Of course we won't really know for sure (each of us personally, I mean) until we die.

So where does that leave us? Rather far afield from the topic of the thread, I'm afraid, but hey, that's life. Anyway, we shall have to agree to disagree, I think. You believe in reincarnation, and that's okay, and I don't, and that's okay too. "Some of my best friends are reincarnationists" so to speak.

And the Christians and the Pagans
Sit together at the table
Finding faith and common ground
As best as they are able
--Dar Williams

Alex
O..O
=o=