Rebirth is so embedded into the suttas it’s almost comical that anyone could question whether the Buddha was talking about rebirth as an actual observable fact of reality. In this sutta I posted a few days ago, KN iti 81, the Buddha says explicitly he’s talking about seeing the process of rebirth happening from his own experience, not hearsay.
KN iti 81 in msg. 27 of the thread:
I was reading the first 10 suttas in AN 4 yesterday, and rebirth is mentioned in several of those suttas. In the very first sermon the Buddha gave, Dhamma wheel turning discourse, he talks about rebirth in there.
At best, we could say the EBT is corrupt, and that they don’t contain the Buddha’s actual view of rebirth.
Have you ever wondered why the ascetics of the Buddha’s time, including the Buddha, were willing to go through such extreme austerities, to the point of risking death, to look for a way out of rebirth in samsara? Why so many princes and wealthy people ordained under the Buddha? If there was no rebirth, wouldn’t they just stay as as wealthy comfortable worldling and just be a lay supporter?
Rebirth is an observable phenomena for anyone of any religion whose samadhi is developed to something similar to 4th jhana quality. Hindus, Essenes, Taoists, Chrisitians and atheists who are skilled meditators have witnessed it themselves.
This a very interesting account you might be interested in, it comes from a skeptical scientifically trained MD.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007EDYNAO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
In any case, it’s completely understandable why people are skeptical about rebirth. You don’t believe what you can’t personally see, and that’s reasonable. It’s much more reasonable than people believing all kind of crazy things out of blind faith that are harmful to others and themselves.
But if you want to know the truth for yourselves, develop your samadhi to the point of 4th jhana and look for yourself. If you hang around skilled meditators, the divine eye, mind reading, seeing past lives and future rebirths is not an uncommon ability.
What I heard one lama say sums up the situation the best. “You don’t have to believe in rebirth, but you’re still subject to it.”