On Karma

So,

I saw this on my Facebook feed:

With the title "Karma is a b****".  

Now, I'm all for teh lols, but the issue I have with karma is that it is so widely held as true in our culture. According to Trans4Mind.com (I know, such a reputable source)

Karma is based on logic. It is an unavoidable consequence of our creations. When we create anything, we also create other things which might not be what we intended.

So, this information is false, wrong and just plain (to take from Tim Minchin) BULLSHIT! Just to make myself clear, there is no evidence, no proposed mechanism, no science, no statistics, nothing more than a cool idea and some anecdotal evidence to support the concept of karma. For some reason, people think that karma is an actual thing, and that it is based in natural laws. IT'S NOT. It's a comforting thought, but outside of Reddit, karma is the same religious dogma as any other belief not founded in reality. 

Now, you might ask, what is the harm in believing in karma? It's just a cool idea; what comes around, goes around, right?

Well, honestly, NO! Karma has been used for generations to make the devastating poverty and economic inequality present in India seem acceptable. IT SHOULDN'T BE. Yet it is, because people believe that the bad things that happen to you, such as starving to death, are because of bad things that you have done. That is idiotic. It makes me incredibly angry that people are just sated with the incredible poverty located in India, because of such an idiotic, yet cool sounding, idea. 

I knew shouldn't have taken that apple 3 lives ago.

That being said, my own objection to the concept of karma is a bit more selfish. I hold the same beliefs as Lois from Malcolm in the Middle

Hal: Wait a minute, Lois. Where are good people rewarded and bad people punished?

Lois: Right here on Earth, if I have anything to say about it.

I cannot count the number of times I have seen someone been cheated, slighted, or even treated rudely, and they didn't do anything, because "karma will catch up to them." Guess what, IT WON'T!

Bad people can go through life and not be corrected, because no one is correcting them. You cannot simply count on the universe to balance itself out, because it won't. You have to be the one to fix something. If someone cheats, call them out on it. If someone isn't being fair, call them out on it. If you don't, they will keep doing it. 

Just like any other religious dogma, it is never put to the test. Greta Christina wrote: 

even the most stubborn political ideology will eventually crumble in the face of it, you know, not working. People can only be told for so long that under Communism everyone will eat strawberries and cream, or that in an unrestricted free market the rising tide will lift all boats. A political ideology makes promises about this life, this world. If the strawberries and cream and rising boats aren't forthcoming, eventually people notice. (The 2008 election was evidence of that.) People can excuse and rationalize a political ideology for a long time... but ultimately, the proof is in the pudding.Religion is different.

With religion, the proof is emphatically not in the pudding.

....There is no pudding, no proof -- and no expectation that there should be any. And there is therefore no reality check, no self-correction, when religion starts to go to the bad place.

And that is the issue. With karma, there is no reality check. People simply trust that things will work out. Im here to tell you, they will not. YOU have to be the one to fix it. YOU need to work to make things better. It has to be YOU! 

CAN PREVENT TERRIBLE PEOPLE

As always, if you have anything to add to the conversation, just comment below!