I believe that this is quite literally old news here. I think Dr. Ehrman has addressed mythicism pretty well.

Robert said
It’s a pretty safe bet, however, that Bart puts no credence whatsoever into ** you do not have permission to see this link **. 

  

And wouldn’t we be disappointed if he did support such specious stuff.

I might as well note that before her death 2 years ago, my cat was also suspicious. (Exactly what it was about which she was suspicious must remain a matter of conjecture. Cats are, after all, pretty inscrutable. Maybe we could try to reach her via a seance. As silly as that should sound, I had a friend who, many years ago, had a party where a self-proclaimed medium, one of his students, read the past lives of his cats. I was not present, but it sounded very funny from his descriptions. I should perhaps note that he was a person with a rather impish sense of humor.)

Stephen said
There is a problem with the idea of reincarnation.  And that is there are more people alive at one time now than at any point in human history.  The population has been increasing exponentially for centuries. The only conclusion possible is that for the vast majority of the human race this must be their first incarnation.  The only way you could have a situation where most people had multiple lifetimes is if the population were decreasing.   I’ve never heard true believers address this issue.   

  

I have, and the usual two responses are that they are indeed first incarnations, which apparently means that they are the least mature souls (something that might explain some of our current circumstances). The other response I have heard is that the reincarnation of a soul is not necessarily one to one, a concept that also conveniently explains how many people can claim to have had the same past experiences. When one is arguing something that cannot be proven in any meaningful way, one can, of course, say pretty much whatever one wants.

Chris_Hansen said
 

Not to mention, in what way is reincarnation even meaningful?

I don’t retain my memories, nor can I discern if I have retained the same personality. Nor can I claim I have the same body, mind, or experiences. Therefore, the only thing that could possibly be “reincarnated” is my rather empty soul which adds little to nothing to who I am, otherwise, there would be more of me reincarnated. Or my soul and body are not the same artifacts, and therefore there is a barrier. At which point, I’m not sure how it meaningfully belongs or is a part of me to begin with.

So, I’m not reincarnated in identity, personality, character, body, experience, mind, etc… so at that point it just seems like reincarnation is rather meaningless.  

I am far from the ideal person to be explaining what those who believe in reincarnation, but from what I understand, they would argue that it does convey at least parts of personality and character, and memory, which includes experience. (The Christian concept of a resurrection of the body in a final time is the closest to reincarnation in the body.) Obviously, this is a serious problem given our modern concepts of how the brain works, and the fact that the brain, being organic, does not in any way survive death and decay. Those who believe in reincarnation, of course, are not bothered by such concerns. There are those who claim that certain states, such as hypnosis or trance, can connect more directly with these prior lives. The fact that no well-documented examples support the contention that people are doing more than using their imaginations (and drawing on superficial information absorbed from a variety of sources) also seems not to be of concern, although they will claim that there are examples where the person knew something that was verified and which they could not know in any other way. This kind of thinking is akin to people who see some object in the sky that they do not recognize, confidently rule out natural explanations (including experimental craft about which they presumably know nothing) and conclude that it must be an alien spacecraft. That is, it is an explanation that strives to ensure agreement even from those who do not believe by eliminating all plausible causes and leaving only the cause they wish to be adopted.

PS – There are traces of the idea that a soul can carry memory and personality in the many stories about ghosts, at least those that supposedly interact with observers. Why they would appear in a physical form that resembles their former body, and in clothing of the period when they lived, perhaps raises more questions that are answered.