-
Asked by hpsauce to Ed, Sam, Steve, Vera on 22 Jun 2011.
-
Sam Tazzyman answered on 22 Jun 2011:
I don’t know the answer to the first question, but according to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long-living_organisms), the answer to the second question is the giant barrel sponge of the Caribbean, where the largest specimens are believed to be 2,300 years old!
As for animal reincarnation, as with all reincarnation, this is not a question that science can answer – it is a question of faith, I think.
-
-
Vera Weisbecker answered on 22 Jun 2011:
I don’t know about the first question either, and I didn’t know about the sponge.
I don’t think that animal (or human) re-incarnation exists. There are no data to suggest that it does, so there is no reason to assume that reincarnation is real.
-
Ed Morrison answered on 22 Jun 2011:
If you mean atoms, then I think John Dalton was one of the first scientists to discover them, although the ancient Greeks had considered the idea thousands of years earlier. Your chemistry teacher might know more.
I don’t think animals reincarnate, but I could be wrong.
-
Steven Daly answered on 22 Jun 2011:
A lot of different people discovered particles! There are basically 3 important particles, protons electrons and neutrons. I cannot remember who discovered them though.
I know there are some species of jellyfish that are basically immortal, and will live forever unless killed.
And no I do not believe reincarnation happens.
Comments
Sam commented on :
If you mean reincarnation in the sense of coming back to life (like a zombie) then I don’t believe it happens. If you mean reincarnation in the sense of their essence or soul returning to a different body, then I don’t believe in it myself, but there’s no way you could really test for such a thing unless you could somehow test for a soul. And since souls are sort of meant to be non-physical, I’m not sure you could.