Karma and reincarnation

Rebirth and moral causation as an alternative to a single created life.

Articles

Karma Isn't Punishment: The Reformative Doctrine Critics Never Engage

Nearly every standard objection to karma attacks a cosmic courtroom my tradition never built; the doctrine I actually defend is a classroom, and specifying it is most of the work of defending it.

13 min · 4 episodes · Chaitanya Charan Das

Episodes

Does Belief in Karma Lead to a Victim-Blaming AttitudeIn a solo essay, Arjuna argues the victim-blaming objection to karma fails: karma is for introspecting on one's own life while dharma governs duties to others, withholding help from a sufferer itself earns bad karma, and a God who lets only the deserving suffer is greater than one who assigns suffering capriciously. · Lecture · 22m· Aug 2023
A Philosophical Defence of the Doctrine of KarmaIn a solo opener to a video series, Arjuna Gallagher lays out the Gaudiya Vaishnava conception of karma, drawing on Akshay Gupta's doctoral work, as a reformative rather than punitive mechanism that shapes desires across lifetimes via samskaras, and pre-empts the fatalism, victim-blaming, and memory objections he will answer for Christian critics in later videos. · Lecture · 16m· Jul 2023
A Philosophical Defence of the Doctrine of KarmaIn a solo opener to a video series, Arjuna Gallagher lays out the Gaudiya Vaishnava conception of karma, drawing on Akshay Gupta's doctoral work, as a reformative rather than punitive mechanism that shapes desires across lifetimes via samskaras, and pre-empts the fatalism, victim-blaming, and memory objections he will answer for Christian critics in later videos. · Lecture · 16m· Jul 2023
Karma as Divine JusticeIn a clipped exchange, a Vaishnava speaker argues the world is hard to explain without karma as God's supreme justice, and a Christian dialogue partner agrees the concept captures Christianity's own conviction that God's universe is fundamentally just. · Lecture · 1m· Jun 2023
Chaitanya Charan Answers Questions on Skepticism, Karma, Salvation & MoreIn an audience Q&A hosted by Arjuna, ISKCON monk Chaitanya Charan Das answers skeptics and Christians alike: karma is an expansion of the cause-effect principle science already assumes, hell punishes actions not beliefs, religious diversity reflects levels of consciousness rather than causing war, and salvation works by redirecting love to Krishna while God manages the karmic account. · Lecture · 58m· Feb 2023
3 Arguments Against Reincarnation AnsweredArjuna answers Trent Horn's three patristic arguments against reincarnation — Ambrose's human/beast incompatibility, Tertullian's uniform infancy and population growth, and the memory-loss-equals-death claim — arguing each smuggles into 'soul' what Vaishnava theology assigns to the body.Trent Horn · Lecture · 19m· Feb 2023
The Worst Debate I've Had ReviewedArjuna reviews his 2-on-2 debate against Indian Christian apologists Jerry Thomas and Praveen Kumar, arguing their gish gallop, quote-mined Devi Bhagavatam, and caste-system red herring never touched the case for reincarnation — while their own atonement claims face the feeble-God and gratuitous-earthly-life objections. (Duplicate upload of the same review video; brief mirrors source 0e59d443.)Jerry Thomas · Lecture · 27m· Sep 2022
The Worst Debate I've Had ReviewedArjuna reviews his 2-on-2 debate against Indian Christian apologists Jerry Thomas and Praveen Kumar, arguing their gish gallop, quote-mined Devi Bhagavatam, and caste-system red herring never touched the case for reincarnation — while their own atonement claims face the feeble-God and gratuitous-earthly-life objections.Jerry Thomas · Lecture · 27m· Sep 2022
The Problem of Evil (interfaith discussion) with @InspiringPhilosophyChristian YouTuber Michael Jones (InspiringPhilosophy) argues to Arjuna that reincarnation delivers only 'deficient soul-building' because memory and the rational agent don't survive death, while Arjuna argues karma plus rebirth guarantees no suffering is ever finally wasted — a debate that ends at annihilationism versus universalism.Michael Jones · Lecture · 1h 6m· Jun 2022
Recent Reincarnation Debate Follow up Interview with @MichaelGranado1In a follow-up to their Capturing Christianity debate, philosophy professor Michael Granado cross-examines Arjuna — who argues children's verified past-life memories make reincarnation the best explanation — and Seth Hart, who grants the phenomenon a 50/50 chance of being real but rates reincarnation only ~10% likely against rivals like morphic resonance, with the exchange turning on evidence standards, Occam's razor, and the unsolved nature of memory.Michael Granado, Seth Hart · Interview · 53m· Dec 2021
Debate Is There Good Evidence for Reincarnation Hosted by @CapturingChristianityOn Capturing Christianity, Arjuna Gallagher argued that children's spontaneous past-life memories, as documented by Ian Stevenson and Jim Tucker, make reincarnation the best explanation of a real phenomenon, while Christian PhD candidate Seth Hart countered that the methodology is too flawed to establish the phenomenon and that even granting it, five rival paranormal hypotheses are simpler, capping the probability of reincarnation near ten percent.Cameron Bertuzzi, Seth Hart · Debate · 1h 42m· Dec 2021
Debate Is There Good Evidence for Reincarnation Hosted by @CapturingChristianityOn Capturing Christianity, Arjuna Gallagher argued that children's spontaneous past-life memories, as documented by Ian Stevenson and Jim Tucker, make reincarnation the best explanation of a real phenomenon, while Christian PhD candidate Seth Hart countered that the methodology is too flawed to establish the phenomenon and that even granting it, five rival paranormal hypotheses are simpler, capping the probability of reincarnation near ten percent.Cameron Bertuzzi, Seth Hart · Debate · 1h 42m· Dec 2021
Reincarnation Debate Arjuna & Sidharth vs @TJump & G ManArjuna and Siddharth Chhabra argue that Ian Stevenson's verified child past-life cases, wound-matching birthmarks, and blinded mediumship experiments constitute genuine evidence for reincarnation, against TJump's counter that parental coaching plus expert-consensus gatekeeping explains it all and G-Man's Christian objections that a transmigrating soul should retain every memory and that demons plant the memories.G Man, Kane B, Siddharth Chhabra, Unknown Host · Debate · 1h 58m· Sep 2021
Evidence for Reincarnation Children Who Remember Past LivesIn a solo video essay, Arjuna marshals Ian Stevenson's and Jim Tucker's research — corroborated child memories, statistically matched birthmarks, and the Robert Snow regression — to argue reincarnation is the best explanation of the strong cases, answering fraud, cultural-transmission, and no-mechanism objections.Akhaṇḍādhi Dāsa, Jim Tucker, John Martin Fisher, Robert Almeder · Lecture · 26m· Apr 2021
Reincarnation & the problem of Evil Seth Hart vs Adi PurushaChristian theologian Seth Hart argues the reincarnation system trivializes freedom, offers only finite grace and forgoes justice, while Gaudiya Vaishnava scholar Adi Purusha Das (Akshay Gupta) counters that infinitely many distinct lives guarantee universal salvation — with host Josh Wolfe (not Arjuna, despite the speaker mapping) pressing both on hell and the unevangelized.Adi Purusha Das, Josh Wolfe, Seth Hart · Debate · 2h 12m· Nov 2020