Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Reggie on March 14, 2010 at 1:40pm

Dagnabbit! Missed Mardis Gras again!

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Hock on March 15, 2010 at 4:12pm

The fact that karma says events happen to you automatically based on your previous actions suggests some sort of ethereal source. Therefore, I can not accept karma as being a viable belief for me personally. I'm quite suspicious of westerners adopting eastern religions as they inherently take beliefs in form of piecemeal, for example why all this talk about karma and not of dharma? Karma is convenient as opposed to dharma which is a rigid path of existence based largely on your position in the caste. Which takes me to my final point: many white Americans (westerners in general) seem to have found a recent affinity for Buddhism thus supporting a religion which was founded by a Hindu, Siddhartha (Buddha) was a polytheist! I fear that the fact many "atheists" pull ideas from eastern religions such as karma will cheapen the atheist movement. I don't need to be told that good things will happen to me based on my actions, I just simply want to do good by others, not for reward but simply because it's right! I don't believe my good actions are going to get me into some fictitious heaven or heal my dog's skin problems, or somehow have people magically like me, etc etc. Atheists should not adopt anything from religions, western, or eastern!

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Hock on March 15, 2010 at 4:34pm

Haha, nice, however, the dog skin problem thing was meant to show how ridiculous karma can become. I'm going to "Larry's GIant Subs" here shortly, I should get a free sub because I was nice to a random guy yesterday. See how silly it can become?

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Permalink Reply by Pinko Commie on March 16, 2010 at 12:53am

That's pretty much why I posted the question. Someone said something about Karma and I realized that while I mention karma fairly regularly, I don't actually believe in karma and I'm not even thinking about what karma actually means when I casually talk about it or offhandedly reference it. I think a lot of people have something akin to this that they kind of half-assedly refer to in day to day conversation but when pressed, they don't actually believe in the idea they're perpetuating.

In short - thinking, good. Lazily referencing supernatural concept, bad. :)

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Permalink Reply by NatureBoy on April 5, 2010 at 1:41am

rubbish....there's no karma. anyone accepting karma might as well believe in god....

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Permalink Reply by Jon Heim on August 4, 2010 at 1:35pm

I do not believe in dogma or karma. but I have people in my life who believe in both and I just let it go. My Pagan fiance goes by the "three fold law" of Wicca.

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Permalink Reply by Shawna on July 3, 2011 at 12:28am

To me it's not so much a "balance the scales" thing, but I've noticed that one does, in fact, tend to reap what one has sown.

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Permalink Reply by Carol Whitt on August 2, 2011 at 5:26pm

Like many of the others, I don't believe Karma is a supernatural force. I generally define Karma as more of the "Treat others" adage. Being a genuinely good person to others shouldn't be due to a fear of an invisible man in the sky threatening retribution or a cosmic force tallying up good or bad deeds. Good and bad things happen, but not because an other-wordly force makes them happen.

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on June 16, 2012 at 9:08am

Perhaps we should also discuss the idea that karma is just a primitive way of accepting the actual determinism of the universe: What you do has effects which happen inexorably. So, in other words, if karma is real, then that is one more blow against the mistaken notion of free will.

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