Do you believe in Karma? Why or why not?

by AlmostAtheist 37 Replies latest jw friends

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  AlmostAtheist

  I haven't read up on it, and my only exposure to it is a few people that say they believe in it. Correct my amateurish view of it, please.

  Karma is the overriding force in the universe that keeps the good/evil scales in balance. If you do something rotten, you'll get something rotten back on you. If you do something good, you'll get something good in return.

  An obvious hole in this idea is the people you can find that are basically creeps, but their lives go nicely. And likewise, the wonderful people you know whose lives are cruddy. One answer I have heard is that Karma keeps track, but doesn't keep individual lives in balance. For all the trouble you cause in this life, you'll be a worm, a bat, or a Jehovah's Witness in the next life -- that sort of thing.

  All things considered, I can't see how the complicated mechanism of Karma differs from the simple random things that happen to people, coupled with the obvious idea that people will tend to be nice to you if you're nice to them.

  I'm pretty convinced there's no life after death, and Karma doesn't seem to keep up over the course of a single lifetime, so I guess I'm a non-believer.

  You?

  Dave
• 

  GetBusyLiving

  Nope, no proof.

  GBL
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  IP_SEC

  I believe in Karma because I like the concept.

  No proof... true but there are many things people believe which cant possibly be proved or disproved.
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  daystar

  Many of the people I know believe in karma. Yet none of them believe it for any other reason than some book or some other person told them it was a truth, and it just "sounds right" or it "clicks". Gee, where have I heard that before?

  When you mention people who seem to be dispicable and yet things seem to go well in their lives to a person who believes in karma, they will most often dismiss it, explaining that the person will be paid back in some other life. Again, they believe this for no other reason than having read it in some book, or having been told this by some "teacher" or "mentor". Some say they have done some past life regression, and while interesting, is suspect in my mind, and requires too much faith for my taste.

  The law of cause & effect I see all around me, every day. It seems pretty self-evident. But I have never seen any evidence that God, or the Universe, Fate or Karma will deal me any future punishment for anything bad I were to do. That being said, a horrible, bitter, mean person sure isn't likely to have many friends now, is he?
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  horrible life

  If I didn't or don't believe in it, than that means that I can't sit back and wait until my enemies get what is coming to them. In that case, I have to take out my own revenge on them. Lots of work.

  1. Planning

  2. Hiding

  3. Buying items needed $$$ or paying for it to be done.

  4. Nervous Anticipation

  5. Arrest

  6. Conviction

  7. Restitution

  8. Humiliation I had a plan, on Halloween night, to do a little light malice. I did step 1 and part of 3. I thought of the rest of the list, and

  decided against it. So all I can do is believe in Karma. Please do not take that away from me. It is all I have left. HL
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  tetrapod.sapien

  no. karma = humans finding patterns in things where there are none. it's a nice concept, but there is nothing to suggest that it is anything other random coincidence.

  TS
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  forsharry

  That would be a negatory. I've seen too many of the do gooders getting shafts and evil bastards getting undeserved props, yo. To say, "Oh, the goodness I've done will return to me." Is just pie-in-the-sky optimism. I for one am rather the fatalist.
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  Finally-Free

  I don't believe in it. I usually try to do good things, but mostly get nothing but shit in return.

  W
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  Darth Yhwh

  Like IP_SEC, I like the concept. Im not sure if I believe in it or not.
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  Satanus

  It's a nice thought, but i don't see much of it in peoples' lives. I think that karma is thought to be carried from one life to the next. Mess up your wife really bad for yrs, and she will collect the karma in the next. Not sure if i believe that. I'm an amateur as well, on this subject.

  S