Do you believe in Karma?

[Rollo Tomassi]

I believe in KARMA, in fact I met him once. Great guy. We knocked back some brew and sushi,....

oh,..


nevermind.

 

[TheHumanist]

I will totally close the issue for you.

If you read the last chapter of "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins you have the chapter "Nice Guys finish first". I will not repeat the chapter, but here we see a plausible explanation for "reciprocal altruism". That essentially what "Karma" is about. It is also rooted in the Confucius saying "do as you would be done by".

In response to the Confucius saying (while a bit off topic), where did you heard that? Got a source of translation? Or if it just a saying, where is that commonly said, for from my knowledge of Confucius, he would not say that. He would say a similar, but the direction and meaning would is actually very different. Your saying is the golden rule and is commonly said among Christian Virtue of do unto others and you wish other unto you, but Confucius had a "silver rule" or a "negative golden rule." Which is "what I don't want other unto me, don't unto others" meaning not wanting bad actions done to you by others, don't do it to others. Similar, but so very different as one ask to do good to others but Confucius ask to avoid doing bad to others.

In my teens I use to think about Karma too, but after reading Dawkins I realised it was just crap, no offence to anybody, but in this cold world where things just are they way they are, to believe in Karma is actually egotistic and vain. It's intricately mixed up with "returning of favours" that many friendships amongst human beings are dependent on, not to mention animals as well (case in point being the vampire bat, a successful individual would regurgitate blood to an unsuccessful one to have the favour returned on a later date).

I am not a believer in the mysticism-spirtuality aspect of Karma being agnostic and seeing no evidence to believe. However, idea that "what comes around, goes around," which means one do enough bad stuff that it will eventually come back in some form (like bad reputation) and it is reasonably imaginable to be possibly realistic making it acceptable to consider. Yet, I do find even with the no offense clause but to say those who believe in Karma in that form as egotistic and vain rather is rather... disagreeable to say the least as it not just call those who believe vain and egotistic, but also goes against the original Karma instead of the Western view formed from "New Age" developments. The Karma from Hinduism and Buddhism is much different. Though to be honest I am a bit blurry on it so maybe I'm wrong, perhaps the poster Mistic who have demonstrated a strong knowledge in Eastern Religion and Philosophy can give a better light.

 

[OzyBoy]

I definately believe in karma. If you do something f*cked up to someone, it's very likely to come back and bite you in the ass.

 

[Mr. Unique]

No thats one thing I don't believe in.

sure we would like to see hitler get his, but I am sure he was destined to go where the pope is going.

 

[Gubby]

Sometimes I do magical thinking, sometimes scientific/mundane.

Karma's definitely a good way of thinking about things. I have as yet to decide my concrete position, if any....

 

[playa99]

respect commands respect

so yeah i guess I believe in karma.
treat as you like to be treated and discard anyone who disrespects you.
You're not going to hang with anyone whos constantly cutting you down and taking the p*ss unless you dont have any backbone and cannot stand up to them which is AFC.
So yeah there is such a thing as karma

 

[Bonhomme]

What goes around comes around -- in a largely disorganized way

I don't believe in karma in the way many people understand it. I don't believe in any "cosmic equalizers," but do think energy gets around, so to speak, though only in as organized a way as we make it.

Not unlike Iqqi's point of view, actually.

What I actively dislike is when people lean on concepts such as "karma" or heaven and hell as a cop-out to avoid taking action here.