lordfusebox said:
I only believe in the Law of Karma. That’s my God. It has been tested by me. I am finding out now that it has some whispers in Natural Selection and Newtons 3rd Law: every equal action…
This is an interesting concept.
I’ll begin with the definition of “Karma”;
Karma (/ˈkɑːrmə/; Sanskrit: means action, work, or deed.[1] For the believers in spirituality the term also refers to the spiritual principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called the principle of karma, wherein intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect):[2] Good intent and good deeds contribute to good karma and happier rebirths, while bad intent and bad deeds contribute to bad karma and bad rebirths.[3][4]
One could make an argument that this describes the process of Natural Selection, except that in science natural selection is a stochastic process and relies on a very gradual conservation of beneficial survival mechanisms in complex organisms over long periods of time.
For the believers, the concept of karma is closely associated with the idea of rebirth in many schools of Indian religions (particularly Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism),[5] as well as Taoism.[6] In these schools, karma in the present affects one’s future in the current life, as well as the nature and quality of future lives—one’s saṃsāra.[7][8] This concept has also been adopted in Western popular culture, in which the events which happen after a person’s actions may be considered natural consequences.
Again, IMO, this could be compared to “conservation of energy”, but again this is more individually oriented rather than a purely deterministic process that is also subject to the Laws of Thermodynamics.
But I am curious to hear your personal experience of instances that might be attributed to Karma …
As you get aware, you see the source and rebound of actions. This sharpens awareness and cyclically continues.
I once rebuked a stray dog for fighting with a pet dog. The pet was stronger in position. I came in the way of nature.
On a bike, I was rude and impatient to a car driver who was blocking my way and he later on cornered me on a cliff-scaring the hell out of me. I was on a two wheeler in a weaker position. I remembered my past 6month old action. Most may not correlate. Awareness helps. And many more incidents which are more personal and illuminating.
At this point I don’t wait for evidence of Karma as a product. I believe,learn, move on.
Absolutely, the concept of Karma as representing the universal Law of “cause and effect” is appropriate for all naturally deterministic events. In this case as an evolutionary result of survival techniques .i.e. “fight or flight response”.
However, IMO there are many events which are probabilistic such as described with Chaos Theory where patterns are formed more or less randomly and only when several causalities are present at the same time or in chronological order, i.e. “the butterfly effect”
The first law of thermodynamics tells us that energy can be changed from one form to another but can be neither created nor destroyed in any process. This law states that the total energy of an isolated system is constant. Energy can be transformed from one form to another, but can neither be created nor destroyed. However, the first law fails to give the feasibility of the process or change of state that the system undergoes. For instance, the first law fails to explain why heat flows from hot end to cold end when a metallic rod is heated at one end and not on other and vice-versa.
The laws of thermodynamics define a group of physical quantities , such as temperature, energy, and entropy, that characterize thermodynamic systems in thermodynamic equilibrium. … A more fundamental statement was later labelled as the zeroth law, after the first three laws had been established. What is the zeroth law of thermodynamics? | Live Science
Consider that many causal events can have emergent effects, dependent on environmental conditions.
Consider the interaction of large numbers of Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms.
The result of their combination into the H2O molecule in large numbers can result in three different states dependent on density and temperature;
a) as a solid (ice) … (dry), b) as a liquid (water) … (wet), c) as a gas (vapor) … (gaseous)
The interesting difference is that while an H2O molecule is a “dry” object, large numbers at the right temperature and density create an emergent phenomenon of (liquid) “wetness”
To the opening comment: I have heard, but can’t confirm, that the Eastern religions and philosophy were cleansed a bit when they came to the West. We can observe that better here, over the last century, how Jesus has become more about love and less about going to hell in mainstream churches. In both cases, you can find the harsher forms.
lordfuse is presenting the friendlier kind of Karma.
The story of the dogs is good for the individual, but I don’t see it as a law of nature. The world is too random, and somebody who was always nice to stray dogs could still end up getting chased down by an angry driver. I think the real question is justice. We can’t rely on gods or nature to be just and merciful. That is the challenge of being a good person.
I believe that Karma, like all other spiritual interpretations of universal processes, is like science, based on observation of the physical world AKA “cause and effect”.
Where I disagree with the conclusion that this is somehow the result of a moral truth.
The universe does not have morals. It has only physical causality based on inherent relation interactive values.
This is why I call the universe as having quasi-intelligent properties. But even Karma speaks of cause and effect, it is a wholly anthropomorphized concept and cannot be applied to the rest of physical spacetime.
