witchcraft...need answer

Originally posted by Dock6

Regarding the concept of 'karma'. If such is to be accepted, it must also be accepted that we are all simply helpless cogs in a machine.

For example: man deserts wife and family, causing them much suffering.

But WHEN did this cycle commence? WHO is 'inflicting karmic justice on whom' ?

Did the wife and children 'earn' their CURRENT suffering in their previous lives by causing suffering to others?

If so, the man who deserts them and causes their suffering NOW, should not, surely, be required to 'pay the bill' in the future. For by deserting his wife and children NOW, is he not simply a tool of 'karmic law' which has ARRANGED for his wife and children to suffer in order they may pay off their previous 'karmic debt' ?

Chicken and egg.

From what I have researched, I don't think karma is a punishment/rewards system at all. Karma is just like gravity. It's a system that operates within the universe because the structure of the universe allows for it.

First, one must define the purpose of karma. Generally, the concept of karma is accompanied by a concept of reincarnation. If this is the case in your view of karma then you should ask yourself, "What purpose does karma serve." Because our society has a tendancy to believe that the rewards and punishments system is the only way to learn a lesson, this belief carries over to beliefs in karma. However, rewards and punishments is not the purpose of karma; the purpose is to help us learn. Good and bad, rewards and punishments, are simply matters of subjective perception.

If you can see past the subjective good/bad aspects of karma and look at the concept scientificly, it is not hard to see that karma is acctually just the end result of a series of events set into motion by an action; simple cause and effect. These effects change the situations in our lives giving us more oportunities to learn. It is our choice whether we adapt to the situation, learning from it, or become a victim of the situation by failing to see the lesson taught by it. If we learn from it, then the next time, it will be less of an issue to us. If we don't learn from it, then simple probability dictates that we are more likely to experience it again, having the same problems as the time before it. This doesn't disprove the concept of karma, it just puts it into a scientific perspective.

If you look at karma as I do, then the question of "who started or governs the system of karma" becomes the same question as "how was the universe created."
It also answers the age old question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
The answer is this: Because they were part of a system of cause and effect that happened to have subjectively bad consequenses.