Is karma for real or a load of crap?

It’s for real, but it’s a load of crap too. If you treat people like crap, thats how they will treat you, not because of some magical cosmic energy or anything, just because you are being a prat.

You say you try to do good deeds, but that some days they treat you like crap, well, how will you respond next time they ask for a favor?

Just because you are nice, you are not guaranteed being trated nice, but for the most part people will treat you ok. However, if you treat people like crap, you are guaranteed to be treated bad in return.

EDIT: If karma was truly real, not only would Hitler still be dead, it would have not been suicide, rather, he would have been killed in cold blood 6.5 million times.

It’s real. It all lies in your own definition of what is good or bad. Either way all things equal out in the long run.

I always seem to get paid back in kind so I try to do the good stuff. I’ve had too many times when I’ve done a small good thing for someone and been rewarded ten-fold the same day (by others who never knew of the first good thing) to think that karma is crap.

Personally, I think that you get back the kind of energy that you put out there. I do think good things come back to you and bad things come back too. Some of it is what @poisonedantidote said. If you’re a jerk, people are going to be jerks right back to you and if you’re nice, people are going to be nice to you. However, I also think that if you put good energy out into the world, you’re going to get it back. Like @JilltheTooth, I try to put good energy out there and I get so much back. Whenever I put bad energy out there, it seems to come back and bite me in completely different ways than I put it out there.

Good people do tend to get walked all over, I know. Bad people get it worse in the long run, however.

It’s all subjective too, e.g. the boss may think he is doing something good for the staff by letting them go home early on x-mas, while the staff may think he was an ass for making them come in at all.

@poisonedantidote: So subjectivity means that karma can’t exist? Maybe someone who came in on Christmas is glad because s/he really needed the money.

@KatawaGrey No sorry, I have not explained my self well. my second answer is only applicable if we operate under the assumption that it is not real, and that human interaction is the only deciding element. and yes, someone could be glad that they came in because they needed the money, as i say, good and bad treatment is subjective.

As for karma being real or not, scientifically it would be very hard to test, if not impossible, and therefore all we can do is be agnostic about it, or disbelieve it, it does not make sense to actively believe it is not real, as that would be as unsupported as claiming it is absolutely real. However, in my case, i disbelieve because of life experience.

If you are good, people will notice and react, and if you are bad, people will notice and react. Of course bad things happen to good people, and bad people are rewarded handsomely, but that is just how it goes. I don’t believe in all the ‘good energy’ crap, because people can’t even explain that. But people will notice if you are a douche or a great person, but there can also be a douche that steps on a good person, so I think good people should surround themselves with good people, they can control that at least.

@poisonedantidote: Why, oh, why must it be scientifically proven in order to exist? It is not an inherently scientific concept. You say it is not real based on personal experience. That is the only relevant measuring stick when talking about whether or not karma exists.

oh, pooh on the naysayers. I believe, I tell you, I BELIEVE!

It’s real to some and a load of crap to others.

it’s real in that karma encompasses causation, which is the fundamental basis of science. All actions have consequences. Simple really, and plainly observable. Some consequences are more unpredictable and complex than others, but the basic concept remains.

@JilltheTooth It’s hard to just believe in some spirit or energy that rewards behavior, I totally understand it, but it doesn’t make sense because there are still horrible things that happen to good people and great things that happen to bad people. It’s hard to believe it if it only works for some people. But I do believe people will reward other people based on their behavior, it can just be a different form of karma.

@KatawaGrey Yea, Im either not explaining my self properly, or we have some conflict in how we define our words.

What im saying, is Karma (the supernatural part of it), is a big question mark. It could exist, or it could not, what im saying, is science cant say either way if it is real or is not real. That it is a matter of belief rather than a matter of fact.

So yea, we are basically saying the same thing here, that the only way to go about it is personal belief.

If you read everything i have said again, but read it through the eyes of a person who does not believe in the supernatural, my answers will probably make more sense.

Personally, I disbelieve that it is real, because i believe some things are so bad that they can never be balanced. e.g. my Hitler metaphor, what could karma have possibly done to him to make up for the horrors he inflicted on others. To me, there could be no justice, no matter what you did to him, no punishment would equate to what he did. If karma is an eye for an eye, how does karma punish someone who takes 3 eyes.

note: i have had no sleep in 22 hours now, maybe its time i get some sleep, i understand everything im saying, but the confusion with what im saying makes me suspect ill read this in the morning and see that i was just being incoherent again

@poisonedantidote That’s an interesting angle. I was approaching it from the good side, but the bad people are capable of is another thing. Take the CT killers that wiped out almost an entire family. They get room and board for the next few years and a “humane death”, if such a thing exists. Why would there be anything the family did to deserve what happened to them?

@Adirondackwannabe The reason why some doubt karma. Or we could say that because a long time ago, one of the family members burned a bridge somewhere, but obviously, that is irrational.

Not sure if it’s real or crap. I just like to do good things for others because I know what it feels like when someone helps me (when I’m in need). Also, I don’t like to see others hurting/struggling.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

I do think Karma is real, I have experienced on many occasions seeing the karmic results of anothers poor actions.

To put a humorous and true spin on things, the first woman my ex hooked up with after I left him was actually named “Karma’.. and, well you know what they say!

It was true.,..boy did he get his! Funniest thing ever!
The truth is stranger than fiction!

@Blackberry I strongly believe in your surronding yourself with good people idea. Good people will cut me some slack if I screwup, whereas lowlifes would just take advantage of it.

@Adirondackwannabe Indeed, I noticed a difference in my life when I started being more selective of my friends.

I do think it is real.How you treat others will come back to you.That is why I am always good

I agree with the treating others well, but whay about random good deeds?

@Adirondackwannabe Then you get extra points…AND A BRAND NEW CAR !

just a question to all, even if you disagree with my point of view, is what i have said coherent? or is it a hard to understand rant. I’m just real real sleepy, and im wondering if i have used a load of bad grammar and/or bad punctuation, and its all coming across as nonsense

@poisonedantidote It made sense.

@Blackberry thx.. ill go get some sleep before i say something that does not make sense lol

I certainly do believe that you reap what you sow, but to me that doesn’t go anywhere beyond how cultures and societies work. Don’t go to work, don’t get paid. Treat everyone like an ass, nobody likes you.
I think that the exceptions, such as being a rich business man who got up there by stabbing everyone in the back or not receiving one’s due by being extra nice are the kinds of things exactly that people base Karma on. To me it’s like a form of denial or delusion.

For what it entails, I don’t think that Karma is supposed to relegate these exceptions to what happens after death. :/

@Symbeline: The guy who stabbed everyone in the back to get to the top probably has kids who hate him, a cheating wife and latent homosexual desires that he cannot express because he works with a bunch of conservative assholes.

@KatawaGrey Maybe, but less fortunate everyday people suffer the same things constantly.

I’m not saying Karma is merely about success or wealth, but being rich or conservative aren’t the only things that enclose the things you mentioned.

Its surreal alright.

Karma is not what happens today. It’s how you react to everything that happens in your life. What goes around, comes around is a joke or misunderstood. It doesn’t mean in the next 5 minutes.

It’s a spiritual concept, like the soul. Not a physical reality made of quarks, electrons or photons.

A realised person, has an appreciation of karma, and understands it as it unfolds, it makes sense, one can learn lessons from it, but that isn’t to say it has an accurately predictable quality.

Karma is one of those theological notions folk really wany to be real, simply due to the number of pure bastards out there creating absolute bloody misery. Reasonable people may desire to whack the swine a few times with an iron bar as recompense for big personal transgressions but their decency or civility holds them back. The instinctual reaction is to respond in kind. Those born with a modicum of sentience cannot reciprocate in kind due to whole sets of restraints and inhibitions and fears. Karma is a comforting concept if in the main you have been fair, kind and loving.