BECAUSE I SAID SO

*slams head into desk*

I keep making the same mistake over and over.  I keep trying to have actual conversations with SK.  Why do I keep doing this to myself?

She said this morning that she could prove scientifically that reincarnation exists. 

Now how am I going to resist that challenge?  First off, I’m not saying it doesn’t exist.  Hell, I don’t know.  SCIENCE doesn’t even know.   I’m not going to sit here and say I know everything so this can exist, but that can’t.

So, ok…I’m game.  First we need to define a few things.  Merriam-Webster defines reincarnation as ‘a rebirth of a soul in a new human body.’ 

So far, so good.  Therefore, we need at least a viable theory as to the existence and nature of a soul.  Science hasn’t done it yet, but at the point we started the conversation, I’m not discounting the possibility of its existence, or SK’s ability to give logic or rationale for it.  I’m really being open-minded here.   Again…I don’t know everything, right?

Ok, SK…the floor is all yours.

She opens thusly, “Everything is cyclical, why shouldn’t man be as well?”

Huh? Wha-?

I spend some time trying to define ‘cycle’ as it applies to her argument.  She references the sun rising and setting.  I point out that it’s actually the Earth circling the sun.  She concedes the point, but points out that the planets are all orbiting the sun in a cyclical orbit.  I consider pressing the point that gravity, not fate or whatever is responsible for that, but decide against it to prevent getting too far off topic.

She references the ebb and flow of the tide.  Gravity again, but I’m curious to see where she’s going, so I let that pass.  She challenges me to pick anything in nature that doesn’t have a cycle.  Piece of cake, I think.  I answer ‘time.’  She says that time IS cyclical, and references days, months, years, etc.  I point out that those are human conventions, and that time (as best as we can understand it) is linear.

(I almost referred to it as a ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, but she’s no Whovian, so she wouldn’t get the joke.  )

She concedes the point, and asks for another example in nature of non-cyclical things. I cut in and say that her initial assertion relies on her proving there’s a spirit or soul.  A valid and reasonable point, but she ignores it and goes back to her ‘cycle’ challenge.  Fine.  I answer that things die.   I figure that’s going to force her to define ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’ in such a way that we can address it. 

Nope.  She says that trees ‘die’ but then come back.   I’m getting pretty fed up with cycles at this point.  I posit that if I uproot a tree and burn it, it’s not going to come back as the same tree.  She says that doesn’t count because it was acted upon by an outside force.

What. The. FUCK?

I throw out examples of animals being killed, or even just dying of old age.  Nope, don’t count because of outside forces.  I ask if her theory relies on no outside forces ever acting upon anything.  (Snarky, I know…but I’m starting to get pissed.)  She ignores the question and repeats that since everything is cyclical, why isn’t man?

I realized a few things at this point.  One, she has no ability to, or intention of, hypothesizing the existence of the soul (which you’d THINK would be key to her argument), and two….her argument for the existence of reincarnation depends ENTIRELY on me NOT being able to prove it DOESN’T exist.  Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with logic, rationality, or science knows that’s bullshit. She made the claim...the burden of proof is on her!

So I snap.  I ask her pointedly how the alleged cyclical nature of certain things in any way proves the existence of a soul, and thus the validity of reincarnation.  She says, “I’m not talking about souls, I’m saying that if everything else is cyclical, why not man?”

*twitch*

*twitch*

So now we’re pissed at each other.  She’s mad that ‘I don’t listen’ and ‘I’m close-minded’.  I’m pissed she wasted an hour of my motherfucking time with NOTHING. 

God, it’s like living with a fucking six-year old girl.

Help me out, guys!  Am I wrong here?  Am I missing something?  I mean, she's done a real number on my sanity over the years, but I'm reasonably sure I'm not some blithering, close-minded idiot.