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Is "believing" in karma superstitious or is it scientific based? Does karma even exist?

For me, karma stems from the Newton's law that states "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."
What do you think?

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Ana305 4 Aug 4
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26 comments

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5

Newton's third law leads to the doctrine of karma? That is ridiculous! Newton's third law is a testable hypothesis and as it has been tested and used to make predictions that have always turned out to be true, it is a physical law. Can the doctrine of karma be tested? Can it make verifiable predictions? I don't think so.

5

I personally don't believe in Karma, for the simple reason, there's much too many bad people that continue to get away with doing bad things to people and nothing happens. If Karma was real I don't think you'd have so many repeat offenders doing awful things. ....just a opinion lol

4

Karma is a nice idea, as it implies that there might be some form of justice in the end. But, when you get right down to it, it's just another notion of punishment and reward, which implies that someone or something is keeping score. I can't buy into it.

4

This is one of Newton's laws of motion. Karma has no mass, and is not measurable. Because it doesn't exist. I like the idea though(which is all karma is, a social construct). Reaping what you sow Etc. But, at the same time, shit just happens. Sometimes we're just in the wrong place at the right time, and physics just runs you over and you reap the reward, or pay the price.

3

Superstition. However, if I mistreat someone over and over, they may remember and not wish to associate with me anymore, a form of direct consequence karma.

3

Strictly speaking I can’t disprove kharma, but I think there is a more naturalistic explanation for why it appears that people who continue to do bad things, have bad thing happen to them.

It’s simple statistics. The more people you harm by your actions, the more likely it is that the people you’ll encounter in the future who won't tolerate the harm you are doing. I doubt that it’s some cosmic sense of justice serving up some slice of just desserts to those who commit wrongs. Think of all the criminals who were one off crooks and never got caught. Furthermore, even if something bad does happen to someone we’d have to find some way to establish a link between that and what they have previously done. Kharma also has the problem of “why do bad things happen to good people?”

I think the reason we like to think kharma exists is because it’s comforting to think there some order to the universe where individuals who have wronged you or someone you love will pay for it one way or another, but I think the examples I’ve seen of “kharma being served” are just confirmation bias and there is a much more naturalistic explanation.

2

Karma isn't a real thing, of course, but watching my ex make one terrible decision after another, to the point of wrecking his own life sure FEELS like karma.

Deb57 Level 8 Aug 5, 2018
2

To my mind, karma as it has come to be understood; is just a passive-aggressive version of justice where you don't get to witness it carried out. When you are wronged, you just "hope that they get theirs". Even then, it's kind of like Schadenfreude, which is another really pathetic concept to live by in my opinion.

@Omen6Actual What am I, a perfect being above reproach? Of course my mind has experienced inappropriate thoughts and emotions. The key is to first, recognize them and not act on them. Then come up with a better way to guide my thinking and handle my emotions in the future.

2

I'd like to believe in karma. And occasionally I see what could be considered karma. But in reality the universe is random and sometimes the right things happen and the bad guys get caught. But most of the time nothing .

2

As some have said, I believe in the concept of karma - but not as a force unto itself. If you are a good person, do good things, are seen in a positive light by those around you- they are more likely to feel positive towards you and that will influence their attitudes and actions towards you. Opposite is true as well. Net result being you reap what you sow. I don't think it's 100%, but it is a cause and effect... I don't see it being anything more than that.

2

I think the idea of people getting what they deserve is just to keep us tame. Hell might be just an extension of the same wishful thinking.

2

The only creedence I can give the concept of karma is that if I do something bad and it nrgatively affects another person then I have increased the 'net negative experience' of all humanity. But, that is stretching a leg here...

GinoG Level 4 Aug 4, 2018
2

Karma doesn’t work the way most people believe it to be. But it’s based on Buddahist beliefs. But I still think it’s garbage. I’ve seen bad people do bad things to good people and nothing ever happens to reflect the injury they inflicted on others.

You can only speak about yourself... you don't know how the bad person really feels inside every night.... or what is going to be their end. You can suffer in 15 minutes before dying a lifetime of hurt. It is not a science or a scientific rule to follow but simply a belief without need of validation how you should live and treat others so others treat you the same way.

1

It depends how you define Karma, Buddhism and Hinduism have many schools with different definitions. Most books on meditation define more karma as behavioural tendencies, so if one is more virtous develops positive karma, which is quite similar to modern psychological models of behaviourism and cognitivism. So Karma is an ancient word to describe psychological processess that lead us to conditioning, so bad karma is bad conditioning, which happens in addictions where certain behaviours can reinforce or can avoid the addiction and is parta of modern psychological treatments. Others view Karma as some kind of cosmic force while others as natural as gravity of reaction with action. But I believe Karma is an ancient model to explain psychological processess that are better explained in modern models, but are quite complex so Karma might help one understand the conditioning that leads to negative thoughts, and this to negative behaviours which lead to negative outcome. This is the basis of cognitive behavioral therapy, so Buddhists explain this processess by instead of cognitive distortions they speak of negative karma. Again depends how you define karma, it does not exist in physical sense, but it can be a simplified model to explain certain psychological processess, which was helpful in antiquity when they did not have modern neuroscience, but nowdays it might be more helpful to integrate and to learn psychology.

1

If karma exists then it's done a very bad job of keeping up with me. By all rights, I ought to be buried head-down in a termites' nest by now with a pineapple up my bumhole. But I'm not... I'm living a happy, peaceful life in a nice corner of the world, with a loving family and very few worries, whilst other innocent and far better people are scratching around in terror in places where you never know if your partner/child is going to be dragged from your house and murdered.

I find the whole concept of karma crashingly egocentric. The idea that there's some unseen force keeping watch over each of us and tallying up our good or bad deeds and arranging the entire universe around us to reward or punish... Why? How? Do we each get one invisible bureaucrat to handle our caseload? When does he get a break?

1

I don't believe in karma. I wish it existed because there are several people (politicians: US and foreign, religious leaders, business execs, racists, homophobes, pedophiles, etc) who need to get their comeuppance.

0

In order for karma to be real, we would have to have free will. We don't have free will.

0

I’m sorry but Karma is bullshit. It’s entirely based on the ancient Hindu notion of some daydream of retribution for sins and evil doing, if not in this life then some future one. It became an excuse to ignore the plight of others. See the one armed blind beggar on the street? Don’t help them! They must be working out their evil karma from a previous life and helping them just makes it worse!! Total cadswallop. If karma was real then Kissinger & Cheney woulld be dangling from a rope at The Hague and not reading the lives of rich evil bastards like they are.
A better term for seemingly appropriate returns for selfish crass actions would be “poetic justice”.

0

Of course there is no such thing as Karma. Trump is walking proof of that. You might find comfort in thinking that what goes around comes around but there are plenty of unsolved murders to prove that isn't so. Me? I prefer to exact my own revenge!!! (evil laugh)

0

I don't believe in karma per se, but I believe you get back what you give out, more or less.

0

Have studied this quite a bit, from source materials and qualified teachers. I find it totally scientific within the Buddhist worldview.

...but it's illusory. So, really, it does not exist.

0

I think that "what comes around goes around," but it's more probability or likelihood than any supernatural force. Some awful people continually thrive and never "get what's coming to them," while other people continually pay a terrible price for crimes they never committed.

0

I don’t believe in anything that cannot be scientifically proven. Consequence of ones own action is not Karma. If we understood more that our actions do have consequences we would not blame bad Karma for some of our mistakes.

0

Moral allingnment has an evolutionary advantage to be "good". Being good to your species means you are better equipped to work together and more likely to survive so I believe we inherently look for karma like explanations to not feel bad about wishing harm on bad people. Now that we are the apex predator working together does not necessarily mean success. So we tend to see more big corporations with a self interest as opposed to a species interest.

0

Karma exists, but is self inflicted (except in psychopaths).

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