Poll: Do You Believe In Karma?

[RJ 17]

Just a curiosity question, mostly. The question is in the title: do you believe in Karma? In a form of "cosmic justice" that ensures that bad actions are revisited upon those who commit them while good actions are rewarded?

Personally I think if you believe in the concept of hope, you almost have to believe in the concept of Karma. If no such cosmic justice exists, then what's the purpose of hoping? Hope for a better humanity, hope that things will get better, hope that those who commit wrong-doing will get what they deserve at some point.

Without Karma, there's no reason to NOT just been an asshole all the time. There's no reason to not treat other people like garbage knowing that the law prevents them from doing anything to you in return. Take the asshole who threw a bottle of water at my car today...what am I gonna do? Chase them down and go all GTA on their asses? I called the police and reported it so the best I can do at that point is "hope" that something was done about it. That or place faith in the concept of Karma to handle the situation and ensure that something bad happens to them for their jackassery.

So, my fellow Escapists, what are your thoughts on Karma or the notion of "cosmic justice" in general?

 

[Tanis]

No, history would say otherwise.
Hitler, Stalin, Khan, Mao.
All did REALLY horrid things, and were rather successful for long...long...periods of time.
Whole empires raped, pillaged, murdered, enslaved, tortured, and etc...other peoples; lasting for a long time.

To be good only because you either:
A) You think there's a nice afterlife waiting for you.
B) You think being good now will help you later.
C) You think there's a bad place after you die if you're bad.
D) You think being bad now will hurt you later.
E) etc.

All seem rather sad and pathetic, even frightening, to me.

I do good things not for the carrot, but because I want to.
Sure, a legal style that will toss my ass in jail or fine me if I do something bad helps...

It's the same, insane and scary, argument I hear when some THEIST finds out I'm an atheist:
"What stops you raping, stealing and killing if not god?"

I find that line of questions SCARY because it makes the person asking it seem like a bad person who WISHES they could rape, steal, and murder...but 'god' got in the way.

I, personally, have no DESIRE to rape or steal or murder.
I'm not even sure I could murder someone in self defense, let along for 'fun' or whatever.

And...yeah...I'm just whatever.
Lost my train of thought.

TL;DL
NO.
Because I'm good with out god/karma/the spirits within.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

I do believe in Karma (hence the name). It's not so much a system, for lack of better word, put here to prevent us from being selfish jerk bags to everyone, but more of something that happens anyway. Those who are bad do receive what they sow, it's just usually not immediate (the kind I'm talking about goes hand in hand with reincarnation, where your next life will bear the consequences of your previous one).

 

[HoneyVision]

Karma is just a convenient system of evaluating your actions. AS IF things were as simple as Good Now = Good Later. And it's one of those rare things that BOTH theists and atheists just laugh at.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

No, I don't believe in any kind of superstition or magic. Not sure what else I can say really, I just don't think that kind of stuff exists. It all seems too fantastic.

 

[DementedSheep]

Karma as in some mystical force that will punish you for being an asshole? No but there is some truth to it. You reap what you sow, if treat people like dirt all the time you?ll get that right back.

How do you mean believe in the concept of hope? I hope things will happen or not happen all the time. I can believe that there is a possibility for something good happening even if the worst is more likely. There is no cosmic justice or mystical force involved in that.

I don?t need some fear of punishment to not be a wanker or to help others out. Being an asshole or exploiting someone who doesn't deserve it makes me feel bad, helping someone out makes me feel good. There doesn't need to be an additional carrot or threat attached. I imagine many people feel the same. The whole "people will be monsters if you let them" thing I've found is generally not true. Most people seem to be basically good people. Certain situations can change that but on the whole I think some level altruism is present in most.

 

[EeveeElectro]

No, too many horrible people are living a good life who don't deserve it. Most of them have got through life so well by being bastards.
I always make sure I do the right thing but I always end up shat on somehow.
Obviously I was just born under a bad sign, but I don't believe in karma at all, it's just something people say to make themselves feel better.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Without Karma, there's no reason to NOT just been an asshole all the time.

Yeah, that's not remotely true. Many people who aren't arseholes all the time have reasons.

...

Anyhoo, karma, in that sense, obviously does not exist. Having said that, that's not how karma is supposed to. You are supposed to be rewarded or punished for your actions during this life after it has ended, not during it.

 

[Queen Michael]

I don't believe in karma, but karma's a funny thing. I've got a friend who believes in it, or at least used to (it's been a couple of years since we discussed it), and I pointed out that unless she's got some way of determining what actions the Universe considers good and evil, she's basically just assuming that her view of what's good and what isn't is always the correct one. Which I'd say shows a bit of hubris.

 

[Me55enger]

Only as an excuse. Like when I believe in Fate as an anthromomorphic personification so I can imagine the bastard sitting there sniggering at me.

 

[Aramis Night]

Not at all. I'm with the Marquis de Sade on this one. If there is a higher power, it clearly despises virtue.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

No, but I do like using it as a figure of speech, mostly in the form of lame portmanteau's like 'karmariffic' or ' karmatastic'.

 

[DaWaffledude]

No, history would say otherwise.
Hitler, Stalin, Khan, Mao.
All did REALLY horrid things, and were rather successful for long...long...periods of time.
Whole empires raped, pillaged, murdered, enslaved, tortured, and etc...other peoples; lasting for a long time.

To be good only because you either:
A) You think there's a nice afterlife waiting for you.
B) You think being good now will help you later.
C) You think there's a bad place after you die if you're bad.
D) You think being bad now will hurt you later.
E) etc.

All seem rather sad and pathetic, even frightening, to me.

I do good things not for the carrot, but because I want to.
Sure, a legal style that will toss my ass in jail or fine me if I do something bad helps...

It's the same, insane and scary, argument I hear when some THEIST finds out I'm an atheist:
"What stops you raping, stealing and killing if not god?"

I find that line of questions SCARY because it makes the person asking it seem like a bad person who WISHES they could rape, steal, and murder...but 'god' got in the way.

I, personally, have no DESIRE to rape or steal or murder.
I'm not even sure I could murder someone in self defense, let along for 'fun' or whatever.

And...yeah...I'm just whatever.
Lost my train of thought.

TL;DL
NO.
Because I'm good with out god/karma/the spirits within.

This.

I don't hope for humanity because I think some cosmic force will magically make things better. I hope because I think humans will make things better.

I understand that happiness is a good thing, regardless of who experiences it. If it's me, great, but that's not what's important. I do good things because they make people happy and I don't do bad things because they make people sad.

Now of course, I don't stick to this 100% of the time, I'm only human. But when I do slip up, I don't console myself by saying "Punching that kid was karma, he had it coming!" or "Oh well, karma will make sure I get my comeuppance later" When I make mistakes they're my mistakes, and I like it that way.

 

[Nouw]

Yes I do believe in cause and effect. Karma, eh, not so much. Then again, maybe Hitler was reincarnated as a tape-worm or something. Who knows.

 

[Evil Smurf]

As much as a I belief homeopathy to be real medicine, that is to say, none at all.

 

[Caiphus]

I believe there are a few different interpretations of Karma, so this thread is probably going to have people talking about their own interpretations.

The "cosmic justice" in the OP is one interpretation, where a divine being guides/determines the punishments and rewards for evil and good deeds. This, I don't believe in.

Then there's the more Buddhist interpretation, which is what I was taught in those rather tedious religious education classes in school. It works without any concept of divine intervention, and merely looks at natural cause and effect as evidence of Karma. If you are an asshole to people, they will generally be assholes back. If you're nice, people are generally nice in return. I don't think that they assign this to any supernatural entity, but just use it to explain how the world works. It doesn't work in every instance, unfortunately, but I do "believe" in this, yes.

Edit: Here we go, from Wikipedia:

In Hinduism, God plays a role and is seen as a dispenser of its version of karma. The non-interventionist view is that of Jainism and Buddhism, the latter originally a non-theist religion. Generally, Western popular culture portrays karma as more of a supranatural mystical force than a perspective on causality. This is more similar to Hinduism's concept of karma than Buddhism's.[citation needed][footnote]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma#Western_interpretation[/footnote]

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Yes I do believe in cause and effect. Karma, eh, not so much. Then again, maybe Hitler was reincarnated as a tape-worm or something. Who knows.

Tape worms have pretty sheltered lives

 

[Nouw]

Yes I do believe in cause and effect. Karma, eh, not so much. Then again, maybe Hitler was reincarnated as a tape-worm or something. Who knows.

Tape worms have pretty sheltered lives

A battery hen then? Maybe factory salmon.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yes I do believe in cause and effect. Karma, eh, not so much. Then again, maybe Hitler was reincarnated as a tape-worm or something. Who knows.

Tape worms have pretty sheltered lives

A battery hen then? Maybe factory salmon.

By extension, though, those people mistreating reincarnated Hitler and being cruel to animals, and have something nasty happen to them in their next life. Presumably Hitler's victims had done something in a previous life to deserve what he did.

Yeah, not a fan of that way of thinking.

 

[Evonisia]

I see the logic behind the most common form of Karma (being good will likely lead to something good happening to you, depending on the action), but I don't believe that there is some force that can take action in such a way. I don't believe there's anything capable of governing and dictating the actions of everyone.