re christianity and repeated lives while this is essentially a discussion of reincarnation in the context of christianity gerry palo has made some comparisons to asian religious beliefs on this topic which have simplified the asian idea of karma to the point of misrepresentation there are significant differences in the idea of karma among hindus jains buddhists and even among the various buddhist traditions to refer to karma as a system of reward for past deeds is totally incorrect in the buddhist and jain traditions karma is considered to be a moral process in which intentions either good or evil shape a person s predilections for future intention and action and produce a person who is more prone to good than evil or the opposite reward has nothing to do with it both jainism and buddhism are atheistic so there is no deity to dispense rewards or punishments karma is usually described in terms of seeds and reaping the fruit thereof in fact as you sow so shall you reap is found in the pali canon as i recall the metaphor of natural growth is explicit hinduism or some sects in that tradition are i believe much more deterministic and involve concepts closer to reward and punishment being theistically inclined in point of fact the theravadin buddhist tradition of southeast asia considers karma as only one of five influences in human life and in fact from their point of view they would be unable to explain the mechanics of karma without the element of free will also in eastern religions there is a difference between reincarnation and rebirth which is essentially absent in western considerations isn t origen usually cited as the most prestigious proponent of reincarnation among christian thinkers what were his views and how did he relate them to the christian scriptures jack carroll
