I've always thought reincarnation was an incoherent idea. Even if it were
true that when Napolean died, something in him drifted around for a few
hundred years until finding its way into my body, that thing is surely not
"me", nor is it Napolean, and it would make little sense to say "I was
Napolean in a past life", seeing as this mysterious thing that passed fro
him to me (our "soul"?) has no effect on my personality or memory. Perhaps,
by amazing coincidence, a good percentage of the atoms in my brain also
resided in the brain of George Washington at some point in his life. If this
were true, I think it would be on the same level of significance as
reincarnation claims.