It never ceases to amaze me how we as human beings tend to go to often desperate irrational measures to make us feel better about things. Whether they be tragedies, or minor inconveniences, it seems there are two types of people; those that realize we live in a chaotic universe reliant upon the concept of causality, and those that create and adopt superstitions to make everything feel better.
This article, as many of you have guessed, is about the latter. There is no greater all-encompassing superstition in this world than the notion of 'Karma'.
Karma has its roots in Hinduism, and explains that every action performed by someone, good or bad, is eventually returned to that person. The basic point of Karma is to persuade people to do good deeds, because if they do, then they don't get their head caved in. Sounds fair and makes sense, right? Let's take a closer look.
Problem #1
Karma, meet free will. Ready? FIGHT!
Free will and Karma are two philosophies that don't get along. Let's say that John mugs and kills Mark in an alley. Like most crimes that occur of this nature, Mark was your regular guy, had a family, never killed anyone, and led an unremarkable life which was cut short.
So was John acting on his free will? Or was Karma responsible for bringing suffering to Mark?.. After all, everyone gets what they deserve, right?
By now, those of you who believe in Karma are yelling "IT WAS FREE WILL, BUT KARMA WILL GET JOHN EVENTUALLYYYY!!11!!!one!!!!"..... But here's what you're not realizing...
If every action that everyone does is determined by karma, then muggings and killings like these must mean that the victim somehow deserved it. And if not every action is determined by karma, who gets to decide where the line between free will and Karma exists? Have any of you been somehow compelled to kill someone for no reason and follow through? And even if you do somehow kill someone because of 'Karma', does that mean that nothing bad will happen to you because you were just doing Karma's work and balancing the universe? This is dangerous thinking indeed. Try explaining that to the judge.
Problem #2
Do dogs have karma?
No really, I'm serious. What makes us humans so special? We now know that this Earth is 4.2 billion years old. As a species, we have only lived on this planet for just around 200,000 years. Do you have any idea how insignificant that is?
If the complete timeline of our planet up till the present was compressed to fit on a grand piano, the entire history of the human species would take up less than the width of a human hair placed on the very last key.
We are new to this Earth, compared with the billions of extinct animals that have walked the same ground before us. Did karma just happen to be 'created' when the first humans started evolving 1.5 million years ago? Or did T-Rex receive a parking fine every time he ate a triceratops?... Maybe the triceratops had it coming because his dog kept shitting on his neighbour's lawn.
Problem #3
Where is the responsibility?
If karma really existed, it pretty much just means that we are not responsible for how we act to each other, because hey, the other person must have deserved it, right?
If it really existed, the world would be a much fairer place where kids wouldn't by dying of AIDS in Africa, assholes did not become millionaires, scam artists never got away with their crimes, and Justin Beiber would never, ever have been possible, ever.... But of course we all know this is bullshit. These things really are happening (especially that Justin Beiber thing).
The more you think about it, the more you realize that Karma would be impossible. Sure, if you keep putting cat shit into your boss's coffee, you have a high chance of getting fired, but this isn't the universe giving out your karma, it's just a direct consequence of you being a dick.
Furthermore, your ex boyfriend's car accident had nothing to do with him cheating on you 3 months ago. The world is unfair, and sometimes shit happens. Get over it.
People that go around saying "Karma must be true because my boyfriend cheated on me and then died from cancer" are fucking retarded. Just because two things happen right after each other, doesn't always mean one caused the other. Today, I smashed my shin on a desk and my phone rang immediately. Does that mean I should just keep belting the shit out of my shin whenever I want my phone to ring? Only if I'm insane.
Bad things happen to everyone. Eventually, something bad will happen to your ex, and you will somehow link it to some bullshit thing he did to you in order to make you believe cosmic justice has been served in some way.
Karma brings out the selfishness in people because if someone does something bad to us, we would most likely think "don't worry, karma will get them in the end", instead of thinking "wow, I must have really had it coming for some completely unrelated thing I did", but both are still equally wrong in this bullshit philosophy.
Finally, something that makes sense
Now lets take a step back from all this and imagine the world without karma, where everyone has the conscious ability to do pretty much whatever they like. If someone hurts someone, then the victim has the choice (if capable and willing) to hurt them back. Bad people don't necessarily have to be punished, and good people don't necessarily have to be rewarded by some divine means.
There are no loopholes in this world. No gaps in logic.
It has it's ups and downs, but most of all, each person is responsible for his or her actions.
It's not a perfect world, and it's not always fair... But it makes a hell of a lot more sense and it describes our world a lot more accurately.
If you need to believe in karma to make yourself feel better about a loss or tragedy, then my heart goes out to you, and you are well within your rights to believe what you like. However, believing in something doesn't make it true. You still have the real world to contend with.
We shouldn't need karma to explain evil. Greed, jealousy and assholeness (my word) are traits exhibited in many animal species, including ourselves. It is instinctual, and goes all the way back to our primate roots where only the fittest and strongest survived against competition from other tribes and species.
Karma is a belief for suckers. It accepts that bad things are uncontrollable and we should just let the universe correct it. This kind of thinking basically makes the whole concept of life pointless because it reduces us to robots just living out our lives, helpless to change anything wrong with the world.
I'm not by any means condoning being an asshole, but on the other hand, we shouldn't need karma to entice us to do good. If you are seriously expecting rewards for doing a good deed, then maybe you're the asshole. For the rest of you, do good because it feels good, and not because some cosmic karma train is gonna come and deliver you some goodies.
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