This term is very frightening to many in the West. The probable reason is that if one accepts the notion that life has a purpose, and the purpose is to discover God by experiencing His Creation entirely, then the mistaken notion of Christianity that one only lives once.... becomes untenable. To sustain the misinterpretation is simple, simply deny reason. Actually, although it takes some understanding of the nature of Consciousness, there are esoteric references to reincarnation in the Bible which were not removed in the sixth century.

Who, in his honest appraisal of God, would believe that God would be contented with Souls returning to Him who have never experienced being rich, poor, fat, thin, powerful, weak, etc.? Or, what kind of God would bring a Soul Home who died in childbirth and thus never even experienced Creation at all? Or a God who would allow a Soul to return Home who has not developed absolute humility through intense adversity?

If there is a purpose to being born, then surely the purpose is of God? To imagine that God would not want each and every Soul to experience His Creation entirely and completely is to project upon God the attributes of Man. That is, of a capricious nature. God is absolute, and thus, absolute Love would dictate that every Soul who returns Home would be fully experienced of Creation. Anything less would place some Souls in a lesser position relative to other Souls. With Man this would be possible, but not with God. Reincarnation is simply the physical plane process by which the Soul evolves Spiritually.

Just as a practical consideration, one would think that since well over half the world believes in reincarnation, this fact alone would cause one to pause in denying it out of hand. Any serious consideration of life cannot bring life into a rational reason for being other than its exploration. When you add the cyclic nature of life, it becomes clear that reason stands behind it, and with reason comes intent. The intent is surely to achieve Gnosis, from the ancient Greeks, meaning knowledge of Spiritual truth. In the East, life is referred to as "Lela", or God's Play. Life is the Human Being manifesting him/herself for the purpose of discovering what it means to be an aspect of God.