How can anybody believe in karma???

[Butcho22]

Bad stuff happens to good people each and every day. I'm talking really, really bad. Rape, murder etc...

I would guess most christians believe that in the long run (possibly after death) good things will happen to those who do good. So they will say doing the right thing will "eventually" pay off.

But for those who aren't believers of God, how can you explain your belief of karma?

[kerowo]

You're probably going to come back as an Ottoman.

What makes you think you need a god to keep the karmic books straight? Likewise, reincarnation doesn't require a god either.

[bocablkr]

I don't think any atheist truly believes in Karma. We just use it as an expression like 'they got what they deserved'.

[Butcho22]

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You're probably going to come back as an Ottoman.

What makes you think you need a god to keep the karmic books straight? Likewise, reincarnation doesn't require a god either.

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I didn't say you need a god, I just pointed out that I'm aware how people who believe in god will just say that in the long run (which in the case of a christian is life after deat) good deeds will pay off.

I'm more interested to hear from those who DON'T believe in god, yet still believe in karma.

[Prodigy54321]

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I don't think any atheist truly believes in Karma. We just use it as an expression like 'they got what they deserved'.

[/ QUOTE ]

I saw a chick on youtube that claimed to be an atheist (and I guess she is)..but she claimed to believe in karma and reincarnation because she liked the idea and it was comforting to her to believe it.. /images/graemlins/crazy.gif..surprised she wasn't sucked into a typical religion with those smarts

[bocablkr]

I don't think she really is an atheist. Wouldn't believing in God be comforting as well?

[Piers]

Is bad stuff more likely to happen to a good person or bad person? You create your own universe.

BTW whats karma?

[kerowo]

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I don't think she really is an atheist. Wouldn't believing in God be comforting as well?

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This doesn't follow. Not believing in one thing has nothing to do with believing in something else. Karma and Christianity are different things, not the same thing with different names.

[FNG]

OK, first, karma is a Hindu doctrine that's not compatible with Christianity. What it means, in short, is that your actions now create your future environment. e.g., if you hurt people, they're more likely to be hurtful in the future, i.e. this lifetime or some future lifetime (reincarnation is a given, obv). The more you do this, the more likely you are to run into someone you have hurt (or they have hurt, or so on).

I could see how an atheist who believed in reincarnation (if you could find one) could believe in karma, but not how a theist who didn't could. One lifetime is too small a sample size to expect the odds to approach expectation.

[ShakeZula06]

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I don't think any atheist truly believes in Karma. We just use it as an expression like 'they got what they deserved'.

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[PLOlover]

It's probably part of the underlying fabric of the human mind.

For example, in science, there is a thing called "symmetry" that informs many of the theories. when asked, people who are top theoretical physicists say that they "believe" in symmetry because it is "beautiful", and also it happens to work.