there was a post in Johnny and Lisa's by a Christian that said that Karma was..."a perversion of the basic tenets of Christianity..."

i'm a Christian.but what if karma is like a force in our universe - akin to gravity - that God created? i have been too quick before as a Christian to be against something until i've asked Him (pondered) and He reveals hey, it's cool. He is bigger than any box we try to peg Him in. i would be interested in knowing what others think? could this karma, if it truly exists, be applicable to generations - not just one life at a time. how interesting, because if that is true, isn't that exactly what is mentioned in the old testament about curses for future generations (from one's behavior)? then again, Jesus came and set us free from all of that.

I believe you reap what you sow.

Personally, I don't believe in karma. Also I don't believe that we are punished for the sins of our fathers. God will judge us after our life here is finished.

I agree with what you said Teacher. However, I do believe that you get back what you put out there. Maybe not karma necessarily. But if you are a shitty person you are going to get shit back. Maybe not right away and maybe not from the person you wrong. But you will get what you deserve eventually. And then yes, you will have to answer to God when your day comes......

Karma is intrinsically tied to the concept of reincarnation. While I like the idea, I don't believe in it, just as I don't believe in a god or heaven/hell. I've come to think of both concepts as tools to make people comply to a set of rules, kind of like the boogeyman used to make children behave.

I don't believe in using the term believe to refer to things that I think.

Karma would be a great idea if there weren't a mountain of evidence to the contrary.

Did Johnny and Lisa reap what they'd sown? It only works when we fantasize about the bad guy getting what's coming to him.

Or you can think about it this way - Has anything bad ever happened to you? Has anything horribly undeserved ever befallen someone you love? Was that your loved one's karmic debt coming due? What terrible thing did you do to deserve the anguish you received?

It's silliness at best and intellectually irresponsible at worse. Particularly if used to console someone in pain or guide children.

I agree, ain't no Karma.
Even if I wanted to, I know Karma doesn't believe in me so why reward such negative thinking?

(08-15-2012, 02:15 PM)Riotgear Wrote: I don't believe in using the term believe to refer to things that I think.

Karma would be a great idea if there weren't a mountain of evidence to the contrary.

Did Johnny and Lisa reap what they'd sown? It only works when we fantasize about the bad guy getting what's coming to him.

Or you can think about it this way - Has anything bad ever happened to you? Has anything horribly undeserved ever befallen someone you love? Was that your loved one's karmic debt coming due? What terrible thing did you do to deserve the anguish you received?

It's silliness at best and intellectually irresponsible at worse. Particularly if used to console someone in pain or guide children.

I've been hesitant to answer this, but I do think that some sort of Karma comes around in our life (in either a postive or negative way). Do I have proof? Of course not.

Just things I've noticed in the past. I don't look for direct Karma (you do something, so you personally are affected). I've noticed karma affecting family members (I do something, and something happens to my wife or kids, which actually DOES affect me).

Let's take the case of Tom Petters. Minneapolis businessman. Started as a salesperson at AudioKing and ended up a millionaire businessman. People said, 'Wow he really made something of himself.' He contributed enormous sums of money to charities, and seemed like a really good guy, who'd made it big.

In 2004 or 2005, his 21 year-old son was in Italy, and ended up getting stabbed to death by the father of a girl that the young Petters was trying to court. People said, 'so undeserved (if a death is actually ever deserved).

Then in 2008, it turns out Petters had been the mastermind of a $3.5B Ponzi scheme. Just about every dollar he ever had was the result of fraud.

IMO, his son dying was a bit of bad karma coming his way.

Call it what you will, but I think 2 and 3 times now before I do anything as I 'believe' it'll have some sort of affect on me or my loved ones.

^good example.

(08-15-2012, 02:33 PM)Midwest Spy Wrote: People said, 'so undeserved (if a death is actually ever deserved).

I think that this small remark is at the basis of all these ideas. For some reason, it seems impossible for us to accept that shit just happens, so in order to deal with it, we create an imaginary connection between completely unrelated events, thus introducing some kind of good/bad concept so we can 'reason' away our fear that stuff like that can happen to us, as well.

Not really. But I do believe if you walk up to a black gang member in Compton and call him a stupid nigger and kick him in the shin, you'll probably get shanked.

I believe in that type of karma.

eh, that's just physics. You don't need a freaking belief system to understand that simple case of cause and effect

Not to mention poorly structured cost benefit analysis.

(08-15-2012, 03:03 PM)Ilyanna Wrote: eh, that's just physics. You don't need a freaking belief system to understand that simple case of cause and effect

I believe in cause and effect then.

Karma seems to be taking that simple principal and attempting to make it some cosmic system. I don't agree with that.

She probably meant classical physics. These days all the kids know c&e breaks down at the quantum level.

Ily, quit that trolling with your classical physics cause and effect bait.

'Gear, stop ruining my trolls, you little hadronist, or I will send my quarks to collide with your antiquarks, and IT WON'T BE PRETTY.

(08-15-2012, 03:35 PM)Ilyanna Wrote: 'Gear, stop ruining my trolls, you little hadronist, or I will send my quarks to collide with your antiquarks, and IT WON'T BE PRETTY.

But it will be fast!

Bu dump dump psshhhhhh

you spin me right round, baby, right round...

OH!

(08-15-2012, 07:51 AM)ramseycat Wrote: I believe you reap what you sow.

...isn't that pretty much same thing?

(08-15-2012, 07:57 AM)Teacher Wrote: Personally, I don't believe in karma. Also I don't believe that we are punished for the sins of our fathers. God will judge us after our life here is finished.

i believe when He judges us and He looks at the likes of me, He'll just see that i'm a believer covered by His grace...nothing i did because how could you ever be good enough for perfection?

it's His grace and mercy...not anything I've done...otherwise i'm screwed