Does karma really work?

I don’t believe in accidents…

Karma is for real though not always so visible.

What you are seeing is coincidence, and you may be accidentally ignoring all the times it hasn’t worked out this way (this is called “confirmation bias”). This is not to say that there is no such thing as karma, however, but only to say that it isn’t anything that is magical or that has such a specific focus.

What goes around comes around. This has been observed since the beginning of time. Sure, it’s not universal. But actions have consequences, and how you act in part determines how others act towards you and how they act towards you (both love and hate get “paid forward”). If that’s enough for you to call something karma, then you could say that karma exists.

Just ask Earl Hickey.

Karma does not work.

Confirmation bias does, however.

I don’t believe in karma per se, but I like to believe that good deeds will pay off later on, and bad deeds will come back to bite you in the behind.

Idk I just feel like somethings going on. I’ve also had times when something good has happened to be within minutes of helping somebody else…like finding a 20$ bill on the floor or an unexpected surprise. Or when I know I’m doing something bad, but I do it anyway, and all of a sudden something worse happens to me…Like a heavy book falling on my foot U_U

You don’t have to subscribe to a particular religion to believe in a higher spiritual nature.

Yes, I believe our thoughts affect the material world around us. The phenomenon has been observed in almost all cultures and goes by many names including Karma, The power of positive thinking, prayer circles, and ritual magic to name a few.

However, I believe that in most instances it is quite a bit more subtle than stubbing your toe because you made fun of somebody.

The universe does not mete out justice. It does not believe eyes for eyes and teeth for teech.It really doesn’t give a shit about human beings. Only humans care about human beings. Only human beings can create justice or fairness in the world. And we don’t do a very good job of it. Most people’s idea of justice is to punish the bad guy. People may say that two wrongs don’t make a right, but they sure act as if they do.

To me, karma is a tipping point kind of thing. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference summarizes the concept like this: “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do.”

I think that behavior is catching. Courtesy is catching and discourtesy is catching. Generosity is catching, as is selfishness. Karma means that we are all viruses (examples of a behavior). The more we exhibit that behavior, the more likely it will be that people around us will “catch” it. At a certain point, enough people will have caught it that it becomes the standard for behavior and people who don’t do it get nasty looks. All the time.

It really helps if some people are a kind of doctor, running around trying to infect people with courtesy. Here at fluther, our moderators are those doctors. Of course, courtesy can be catching even when doctors don’t try to spread it.

Karma doesn’t mean you get back exactly what you put into the world. There is no one to one relationships as you describe. That’s just coincidence. Karma, I think, is not about punishment, either. Karma is that you put something good in the world, and you start the ball rolling. Or you are giving a push to a ball that is already rolling. Eventually it spreads so that wherever you go, people treat you as you have treated others in a place long ago and far away.

I believe in karma, and I think things happen for a reason.

@crisw is right. As usual!

I see good people suffer and bad people prosper. I don’t believe in Karma.

Karma is very much a part of my wife and I’s life. We gamble a lot and on a really upcoming gambling day, each of us can tell if the other one is going to win. This is not something that has just occured overnight. Since 1984, we have known this.

A person with good luck Karma. just seems to glow.

Karma is a term used alot but little understand it. You have to be a hindu, buddhist or a jaina to truly believe in Karma. If Karma was real we would all be dead because most people have done something wrong. As a Christian I believe in forgiveness. As big of an asshole as I can be. I am usually willing to forgive most people.

Of course not. And alchemy is is bullsh** as well. Just what century are we livibg in anyway?

A lot of you think its a load of crock..and maybe it is…but it still doesn’t change my opinion about it….I guess to his their own. Thanks everyone. :) Stars to my fellow jellys.

Well…..I work…...and Karma is about more than just someone getting their’s. And no, I don’t believe it in the sense that you mean.

Depends on how you understand karma. In Sanskrit it just means “action” or “activity.” For some it simply refers to the natural law of cause and effect: one action leads to another action in a natural and logical way. You chop the trunk of a tree, and the tree falls down. You roll a marble so that it strikes another marble, and the second marble moves. You leave your bread in the oven too long, and it burns.

If you are using it to mean some sort of cycle of cosmic justice, that is something else. That understanding is a lot more complex than just some idea of pendulum swings or of some little invisible pet avenger who trots along behind you punishing those who aren’t nice to you.

Call it what you want, what goes around comes around.
Still there are assholes who make it and never have bad shit happen in their lives, and there are nice guys who constantly get whipped.
Just don’t be a dick and if someone else is.. Tell them so.

I don’t believe in it, but there is this.

@xjustxxclaudiax Well, good to see you’re open-minded. Because really, why ask the question if the answers don’t matter to you?