LO: To know the Hindu and Buddhist view of life after death. Reincarnation LO: To know the Hindu and Buddhist view of life after death.

What do Hindus and Buddhists teach? Hinduism Each person has a 'self', or atman. The atman is eternal and seeks unity with God. The atman goes through a constant cycle of death and rebirth. Controlled by the laws of karma. Karmic fruits then stay with us in the next life and determine what our next life will be like People are responsible for their own suffering. The atman develops wisdom until it eventually reaches moksha - or union with God. Buddhism No soul/ anatta (soullessness) Made up of five strands (or skandhas) which are woven together to make a person who attracts karma. Karmic fruits cannot attach to anything and so they do not pass through the cycles of rebirth. The person in the next body is neither the same as you nor different to you.

Strengths and weaknesses Stevenson - found cases of children who claimed to be reincarnated, and spoke in such detail about past lives that they couldn't have been making it up Weaknesses Hick criticises Stevenson for taking his examples from places where reincarnation is a widely accepted belief Just because someone may have similar memories to someone who is deceased does not mean that the two are the same person Karma is arguably unfair in punishing someone for something that they won't remember doing from a past life