Karma

Do I believe in Karma?

Short answer: No

Or, at least, I don’t believe in following it as a guiding principle for morality.

Like every religious concept, I respect it and will not presume to know with any certainty if it is real or not.

But if one uses it as a guiding principle for life, it can lead to dark places.

It can justify inaction: I don’t need to do anything, karma will even it all out in the end.

Or lack of sympathy: If something terrible happened to that person, group or race, they must have done something in the past to deserve it.

Imagine this response to slavery: (indifferent shrug), “Karma’s a bitch.”

The concept of karma has the potential for the same pitfalls as the belief in divine intervention and justice in the Abrahamic religions: Indifference and apathy.

There is too much potential for misinterpretation and usurping of religious concepts for me to follow any one of them as guiding principles for life.