Poll: Escapists: Do you believe in karma?

[lettucethesallad]

Now we've probably all come across karma systems in games and had things happen to us depending on if we play good guys or bad guys. But do you think the real world is as simple?

Now normally I'd say no, but I did something shitty to a friend yesterday and today everything's gone wrong - I burned myself, I spilled coffee on my favourite coat and now have to dry clean it, the bus didn't show up and I forgot my lunch at home.

What's your take on the whole karma business?

 

[ZiggyE]

I believe if you do bad things then you are likely to put yourself in a bad situation.

Do I believe in some mystic force punishing wrongdoing? No.

 

[vrbtny]

Karma? Fuck Karma. I'll only believe in Karma when it comes back to bite me in the ass..... which it's yet to do. Anything bad that's happened to me has always been my own fault. ie, doing something very, very stupid, and paying the deserved consequences.

 

[b3nn3tt]

Karma doesn't actually mean what most people think it means. Belief in karma first requires belief in reincarnation. Karma is the idea that our actions in this life affect our next life. So if you are a good person, you will be rewarded in your next life.

Karma does not mean that doing good things or bad things in this life will lead to any kind of impact.

 

[Wuggy]

I believe if you do bad things then you are likely to put yourself in a bad situation.

Do I believe in some mystic force punishing wrongdoing? No.

This more or less summarizes my opinion on the matter.

I don't believe in the concept of Karma. Why would I? No one has ever given me a valid reason to believe in such a thing. Personal experience is not enough and doesn't impress me. Stuff happen, correlation does not equal causation.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Karma doesn't actually mean what most people think it means. Belief in karma first requires belief in reincarnation. Karma is the idea that our actions in this life affect our next life. So if you are a good person, you will be rewarded in your next life.

Karma does not mean that doing good things or bad things in this life will lead to any kind of impact.

Well, yeah, but I don't think that's what the OP meant. Karma in this lifetime is obviously non-existent, of course.

 

[b3nn3tt]

Karma doesn't actually mean what most people think it means. Belief in karma first requires belief in reincarnation. Karma is the idea that our actions in this life affect our next life. So if you are a good person, you will be rewarded in your next life.

Karma does not mean that doing good things or bad things in this life will lead to any kind of impact.

Well, yeah, but I don't think that's what the OP meant. Karma in this lifetime is obviously non-existent, of course.

That's actually what a lot of people seem to think karma is. If we're talking about what the OP described,then no, I don't. People bring misfortune on themselves, I don't think we need to invoke some form of fate to describe it.

 

[Nouw]

Without reincarnation you have no karma. You can't twist the definition of karma. I think what the OP means is cause and effect. And that definitely exists.

EDIT:And it's get kinda iffy since subjectivity kicks in with the claim of 'bad' things happening to you.

 

[Rawne1980]

Not at all.

When I turned 12 I quite literally became a complete bastard. I stole from my parents, I started drinking and smoking and got into fights whenever possible.

I joined the army at 16 to try and sort my life out but it made me more violent. I was still drinking, constantly in bar fights. When I came home on leave i'd beat people for no reason whatsoever (no, not small people i'd look for people that would have made it a fight ... I liked to fight not bully).

I treat my women like shit. Basically used them as sex dolls. I didn't want a relationship, I had no emotional connection to the women I just wanted sex.

8 years ago on 23rd I met the lass i'm now married to. At first I thought it would be the same old "ooh look, new sex" kind of things but for some reason things changed. I got attached emotionally to her. I fell in love.

Since then I calmed right down, stopped with the violence (except when it was needed ... I was still in the army). We had kids which helped calm me down. I cut right down on the drinking. Now only drink once every few weeks when me and some friends meet up to catch up and watc a bit of football.

I have a decent job, loving wife and kids, a nice house and a decent income.

So for some 11-12 years of being an absolute arsehole and I ended up with everything I could ever wish for.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Unfortunately, I don't.
It's a nice idea though.

EDIT: In the actual meaning of the word and the widely understood meaning of it.

 

[Prince Regent]

There is no higher force/power/god that punishes you if you do something "bad". Not in this life or the next.

 

[EmzOLV]

I believe in Karma only when someone has done something incredibly bad and I have no other way to have an outburst about it - you know, the good old "karma will come round on you", "what goes around comes around" blah blah blah.

But otherwise, no. I do some nice things, and I end up hurting people and bad things happen back to me.

I do bad things sometimes, just because you know... everyone does something bad sometimes. And good stuff happens.

It's total fluke in my opinion. Stuff just happens. And you deal with it.
Karma is useful when you're having a go at someone for doing something bad

 

[Bobbity]

You mean are we Buddhist? No.

To believe in it otherwise is as a superstition, and no, I'm not superstitious either.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Never. There's no such thing as people magically getting fucked over for fucking other people over. It's called action-reaction in human interaction. It completely contradicts the fact that criminals live like kings meanwhile the honest laborers get curbstomped in the gutters like peasants.

 

[Korak the Mad]

I do believe in karma, and I am always trying to do right thing, because if I don't something shitty usually happens to me. I don't usually fight back against someone because something bad will happen to them little while after, like if someone is trying to start a fight with me I don't fight back, and after a few weeks after fighting with me these people usually have something bad happen to them like a broken leg or arm.

A good example of good karma happening to me is when I was in eighth grade I was trying to split two frozen hamburgers apart with a sharp knife, holding the burgers in one hand and the knife in the other. I had done it before a few time successfully, but this time, it wasn't the case. I had used too much force and I stabbed myself in the hand. I had to go to the hospital because it was a major cut and I needed stitches. When I got there the doctors checked my hand and said that I had gone inbetween two nerves and if it was slightly off from where I stabbed it, my hand would have been paralyzed.

So I do believe in karma, and I always try and do the right thing for people, and when something happens that might be taken a bad karma, it is sometimes good karma in the long run. An example: Let's say you get injured and broke a few bones, Bad Karma, but while doing X-rays the doctors find that you have a tumor that otherwise would have gone undetected until maybe it was too late, Good Karma.

 

[ciancon]

It's a nice idea, more appealing than christianity anyway. But no i don't believe in it.

 

[Penguins4Freedom]

*****, I AM KARMA. *punch*

 

[Mechanical Cat Fish]

I don't believe that doing good will necessarily cause good things to happen to you, because reality doesn't work like that. There's no fixed value of 'good' written into the laws of physics so it can punish us when we transgress it. Besides, that idea of karma is kind of just a misinterpretation of Hindu beliefs stating that having good karma means your next reincarnation will be happier/better. I don't believe in that either.

 

[FrostyChick]

It would be nice if it were real. Shame it isn't, I could use a few random kindnesses about now. The negatives in my life now evoke little more than mild disinterest. >.>