I believe the widespread idea of "karma" is due to 2 things:

1) if humans are disposed to help each others as much as possible, our species will tend to last longer. It is therefore natural that people engage in mildly subconscious mutual agreements, where both parts are expected to do something to help the other part.

2) any "bad" actions that a human does (ie, actions that go against what is considered acceptable by society) are always more likely to bring that human poor reputation or sanctions from other humans, compared to "good" actions.

Therefore karma is a (shitty) rationalization of these facts, giving an easier, straightforward reason for humans to understand why they shouldn't piss each other off. People are more likely to force themselves to behave if they believe there'll always be a punishment there (harm to their individual being), rather than if they only acknowledge a possibility of punishment, and very-long-term harm for the species.

Just my 2 cents of amateur, cheap, made-up philosophy.

___________________
sempre contra a corrente do jogo

quote:

Originally posted by varun What goes around, comes around simple as that. I don't believe in karma as such, but I definitely think each person is 'repaid' in full for his / her actions that could be perceived as 'wrong'. Then again, who's the ultimate authority to say what's right or what's wrong? Maybe it was the right thing to do at that point of time, who knows? At the end of the day, Karma is something that cannot be quantized and/or proven by scientific and/or mathematical observation. Whether you chose to believe in it or not, to each his own.

contender for mr ambiguity 2008.

___________________

Let's say I believe there are invisible aliens living among us. Does this make me stupid?

quote:

Originally posted by Boomer187 Let's say I believe there are invisible aliens living among us. Does this make me stupid?

Depends on what made you believe in invisible aliens.

___________________
sempre contra a corrente do jogo

quote:

Originally posted by varun I don't believe in karma as such, but I definitely think each person is 'repaid' in full for his / her actions that could be perceived as 'wrong'.

So you're saying you don't believe in 'karma', you only believe in karma. Ah, I get it.

___________________
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

quote:

Originally posted by noikeee Depends on what made you believe in invisible aliens.

I felt them one time when I woke up...

i just see it as ppl who put themselves in shitty positions have shitty things happen to them and ppl who do shitty things usually put themselvesin shitty positions

I believe that if a person does things to make others happy, the favor will be returned. Some people call that 'karma', others call it being 'good.' I just use the word karma because its less used than the word good. I wont debate this, though, and no, I do NOT believe karma is something that "exists", its more like a personality trait if that makes any sense.

___________________

quote:

Originally posted by Boomer187 I felt them one time when I woke up...

Sounds like Diesel to me.

___________________

quote:

Originally posted by ******** Seplling don't demonstrate intelligence and educatoin - knowing does.

Believing in karma as some sort of an authority which directs punishment to people who do bad deeds is retarded. Its a figure of speech used to express desire for bad things to happen to bad people, at best.
Sure, if you do something bad it might come back to bite you in the ass but only in relation to the thing you did. Stealing a pack of gum at a store and then getting into a car accident on the way home is in no way related.

quote:

Originally posted by kadomony for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.

that doesn't apply in the "karma theory" at all, because good (or bad) things are NOT some kind of energy, or temperature, or force. you don't even have a measurement unit for good/bad.
you can't say that if I do something bad, that's going to make me happy, or viceversa (like temperature for example: a metal sphere with a certain temperature will absorb heat from the enviroment, hence the enviroment will RELEASE heat).

and in the case of someone stealing your gf: what if you don't give a sh*t about that? what if you just go like "oh f*ck it, I don't care". what becomes the act of stealing your gf? a bad thing or a good thing? (afterall, you're not upset, the other dude and your ex are happy together etc).

I think Karma is a placebo. People use it thinking "what goes around comes around" when they're simply just behaving in a way, as NOIKEEE put it, to ultimately promote the species.

People who use Karma are actually internalizing what they've learned from society and retain those morals even in the absence of a direct reward or punishment. EXAMPLE: Say you are at a house party and you see a passed out chick upstairs all by herself. You COULD molest her, but that's "bad Karma" = which means even if you don't get caught and get away with it, it's still not a good thing to do.

Karma isn't "real". It's just a psychological method of maintaining morals in the absence of social ramifications which I help keeps civilization a little more orderly.

___________________
www.facebook.com/DigitalSixable
www.soundcloud.com/DigitalSixable