KARMA ISN'T A BITCH

FOR THOES PEOPLE WHO SAY... "Karma is a Bitch"

Ever have a conversation with someone and the two of you are discussing a bad situation? The situation could have happened to your friend or maybe to someone else. Suddenly, out of nowhere, your friend resorts to the hackneyed cliche “Karma is a bitch”. Every time I hear that platitude I usually let it pass without a response, but inside, I’m seething with infuriation because it occurs to me that they lack a basic understanding of reality.  Yeah, yeah, I know it’s simply an expression and no one really cares about what it (actually) means.

But sometimes I’d like to say:

Do you honestly think the universe arranges itself around your behavior (and actions) and the behavior of others? Are you so deluded and grandiose in your thoughts about yourself that you think the physical laws of the universe react to your emotions and behaviors?

Do you think the space-time curvature of the universe repositions itself in such a way to retaliate against the individual who steals pastries from the local bakery?

If Karma exists—if people are in their current state of (natural) existence due to behaviors and actions from their past or from their previous lives-- we should rightly fault the children who are suffering from starvation. After all, wouldn't their current fate be determined by a past life, one in which their behaviors were evil or malicious?

People might use the word “Karma” in a practical sense. For instance, the phrase “You reap what you sow” comes to mind.

Yes, if you treat another person kindly, the chances are greater that they will treat you kindly in return. If you judge someone immediately and you haven’t even had a single conversation with them—you don’t even know them---expect them to judge you in the same rash response and don’t count on being their friend (you’ve already proven your judgmental attitude). There isn’t anything magical or mystical going on here. These are just the practical consequences of behavior.

As much as we would like to think the universe revolves around our ego and personalities-- as past scientists have thought that the sun and every other celestial body revolved around the earth—it doesn’t, and I am glad for this.

Karma isn’t a bitch because it doesn’t exist. It is just an eastern idea that has now become an annoying nonsensical phrase uttered by almost every thoughtless drone I encounter.

Perhaps it is time to deflate our egos and realize we have very little control of the world around us—that our behaviors good or bad—may not affect the trajectory of the universe or even our own petty lives. Perhaps we should remind ourselves that we just so happened to be lucky to be born in a developed nation and not have suffered from a water borne illness as a child. Perhaps, if you are one of those people who is often reminded that “you’re super smart” or “super talented/competent” you should just realize that you’re lucky and your life would be an entirely different experience if you didn’t have these preferential traits.

Instead of  saying"Karma is a bitch", how about “Being human is a bitch”. We make poor decisions regularly and we often act in ways that are self-serving—whether they are statements to hurt or diminish the importance of someone else (to feel better about ourselves) or whether they are physical acts of harm towards others.  Being human means you are, at times, going to piss others off. Sometimes your behaviors will be an intentional acts to harm others, other times, your acts will be purposeless and will hurt others.

But either way, the universe doesn’t care about your actions. There isn’t a physical force that is going to balance things out or push for (social) justice in the real world. It is us, and our tiny brains, who have to works towards that. 

When I LOST MY FAITH

Below is an excerpt from my journal back at the beginning of 2009 when I was deconverting from Christianity (losing my faith).

            When I thought back about it, it was true that everything in my life could have happened without the intervention of a supernatural entity.  I had never once had a “spiritual” encounter, seen Jesus physically, or audibly heard God speaking to me.  Likewise, never did I see Allah, fairies, Vishnu, angelic beings, leprechauns, the Virgin Mary or Thor.   The senses that God supposedly had given me to investigate every possible aspect of my life, happened to be the very same senses, when candidly applied, had never given me any access to the supernatural realm.  

           After all, I had never seen something like a miracle—an event that actually defied physical laws.  It didn't matter how much I prayed or how intense my faith, there was never the movement of a mountain, or, even on a far more diminutive scale, the revision of my psychologically damaging acne scars and horrible skin conditions.  In fact, the events in my life as well as in the lives of others seemed to unfold exactly as they would from an entirely physical, genetic, environmental—natural perspective.  As I looked more closely at the (natural) world, where people were born, their genetic traits (looks, intelligence, health) as well as a dash of luck—all physical entities, are really what appeared to be some of the most important aspects of one’s (a persons) life—and these aspects really were what created the inequalities that were observed in the world.  Everything became easily explained by physical, material reasons, not by supernatural and/or Biblical reasons.   When I began to flesh out the dogma and ideology of religion and the entrapment's of spirituality and the supernatural, life and its circumstances could be explained in a purely natural manner.

Religion became superfluous to reality.  It may have offered comfort to the mind, but ultimately it did not offer the truth about reality that we could actually know, and that is what I was looking for. Religion gave us conjectural possibilities taught us to more thoroughly examine our motives, but it never provided incontrovertible answers. There would always be exceptions as science marched forward. Most of the time, religion would give overly simplistic answers to very pressing, significant issues such as how best to wield science for moral issues (the welfare of humanity—in all its multiplicity of circumstances) as well environmental and climate issues.)

         The world just makes more sense without gods (or god)—without viewing it from a supernatural context.  Humanity cannot even agree on single religious philosophy or much less how to properly form a family.  Thus, the existence of religion more likely attested to the varied expressions and dimensions of the human mind and its mystification with the natural world—so many people grappling with their various levels of experience, education and intelligence.

           In a sense religion is the human attempt to find meaning in themselves as they grapple with their higher brain functions of the pre-frontal cortex and its ability to judge the meaning of life/existence.