Do you believe in Karma?

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As a Catholic, what is your view of the idea of Karma? I know Karma is more a Hindu-Buddhist concept. But I’ve seen a lot of people (regardless what religion they are) say they believe in Karma. I got to school where Catholics and Protestants are the predominant religions. And so far, I’ve seen people post on Facebook such as “I don’t like blank, but it’s okay Karma will take care of them!” and “Karma will hit blank real hard!” and “Karma is a **!”

But what is your view on Karma? Does it exist? Does it come from God? And if does exist, how does it explain bad things that happen to good people and good things that happen to bad people, what happens Psychopaths who can’t tell right from wrong?**
 
What people fail to realize is that sometimes bad things happen to good people in order to make them better people.
 
Karma is incompatible with Church teaching. Those who profess to “believe” in Karma are in fact espousing a heretical belief.
 
No, God gave us all free will. If good or bad things happen to people its most likely because of the way they live. That’s what I think anyway.
 
No. But I voted “other” because even though I do not believe that if something bad is happening to you that it’s because of some sin you’ve committed, but I do believe God would allow someone to suffer because of their sin to either see the gravity of what they’ve done, or to do penance.

So I guess I probably should have gone with “no” but oh well.
 
TeenageConvert said:
No. But I voted “other” because even though I do not believe that if something bad is happening to you that it’s because of some sin you’ve committed, but I do believe God would allow someone to suffer because of their sin to either see the gravity of what they’ve done, or to do penance.

So I guess I probably should have gone with “no” but oh well.
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I think it’s as likely that something bad is happening because of someone else’s sin.

I voted “no”.
 
Not at all, and I challenge anyone who watches the world for half an hour to maintain a belief in it. The wicked live well, while the righteous suffer. Which continues until death.

The workability of karma depends on metempsychosis (so that you become the wicked who live well in the next life if you were the righteous suffering in this one), and no Christian believes in metempsychosis. We have a “once for all” arrangement with the Lord our God and his monogenes Jesus, that we receive eternal recompense after this life and only this life - not an indefinite series of lives that never end in final recompense (unless everyone eventually achieves nibbana).

And even I have been struck with “laser-guided Karma” a few times, where I committed a sin, which I knew was a sin, had no true desire to commit, but worked up the energy to sin in any case, even being given the grace of God to resist with ease. Actually, if I remember accurately, every time I have sinned, when it has required more effort to sin than not to sin, I have been hit with something similar. I think that’s more of a case of “temporal punishments” of the kind we experience also in purgatory, not “Karma” proper.

For example, as a Muslim, I had marital relations with a woman while engaged to that woman. My mother died the next day (would it be Karma from her perspective?, or the general rule of evil in the world due to sin? the latter.), thousands of miles away, and not thirty minutes after the act I found out that over $35,000 (the entirety of my liquid assets not tied up in various investments) in my bank account had disappeared without a trace (it took about a month to rectify, but in that time I was nearly evicted, but it turned out to be an “error” in the bank’s systems).

Needless to say, I got God’s message loud and clear, at least eventually, as it first drove me to be a more pious Muslim, performing over 100 raka’at a day, and eventually to Christianity (although I have no idea if that specific event is actually in the causal chain leading up to my apostasy from Islam).
 
Khalid said:
Not at all, and I challenge anyone who watches the world for half an hour to maintain a belief in it. The wicked live well, while the righteous suffer. Which continues until death.

The workability of karma depends on metempsychosis (so that you become the wicked who live well in the next life if you were the righteous suffering in this one), and no Christian believes in metempsychosis. We have a “once for all” arrangement with the Lord our God and his monogenes Jesus, that we receive eternal recompense after this life and only this life - not an indefinite series of lives that never end in final recompense (unless everyone eventually achieves nibbana).
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Good point.There is karma as you have defined it and then what I think most people mean and that is how the OP put it
I don’t like blank, but it’s okay Karma will take care of them!" and “Karma will hit blank real hard!” and “Karma is a **!”

I don’t believe either one.
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** I don’t believe either one. God’s mercy allows the greatest sinner to enter heaven if he repents. I think that idea really bugs people. I think there’s a parable about it.
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As far as I’m aware, the popular use of the idea “karma” is quite different from the understanding in traditional Hindu texts, where karma is usually tied to one’s dharma (your vocation, i.e., caste responsibilities) and reincarnation.

Personally, I think it’s sometimes fair to say that some people had it coming to them. What you sow, you reap. But is that really “karma”? I don’t necessarily think so.
 
Yes, I believe in karma. I believe that God allows karma to a significant degree.
 
Khalid said:
Not at all, and I challenge anyone who watches the world for half an hour to maintain a belief in it. The wicked live well, while the righteous suffer. Which continues until death.
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The thing is many mistake good Karma for an easy life. Good karma is good things but not ‘material wealth’ which would be useless to a Buddhist as the entire point is to remove ones desires for such material items. A person who is rich will have an easy life, but sometimes ‘good’ isnt easy. That person would never understand the simple enjoyment of having the day off to spend with loved ones, or the enjoyment of finally being able to afford a nice roast for dinner or even the simple pleasure of being able to collapse into their favorite chair after working there butt off for 12 hours that day.

Karma is incompatible I think with Christianity. As someone said Karma effects our next life, not this one so those who claim ‘karma will get blank’ don’t realize the belief of Karma only effects people in the next life.
 
Bruised_Reed said:
God’s mercy allows the greatest sinner to enter heaven if he repents. .
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But wont he have to endure some suffering for those sins either here or purgatory?

So some kind of evil or pain will catch up to him because of his sins ,is that what karma is?

That if anyone does any evil or wrongdoing ,then they just cant get away with it scotfree ,but something will come back to them and bite them on the backside

isnt that the same as suffering some kind of purging or pain for our sins?
 
Paul_theApostle said:
But wont he have to endure some suffering for those sins either here or purgatory?

So some kind of evil or pain will catch up to him because of his sins ,is that what karma is?

That if anyone does any evil or wrongdoing ,then they just cant get away with it scotfree ,but something will come back to them and bite them on the backside

isnt that the same as suffering some kind of purging or pain for our sins?
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Code: 
    The concept of Karma entails this notion of past lives and sin weight or blessings from good actions carried from past generations.  People write terrible things about cultural relativism but this is merely a tool to understand belief systems other than our own.  There is something absolute: God.  Relativism helps understand how other cultural systems function.   It is not a moral or ethical code.  It has no place in our Catholic Faith.
Karma is related to dharma or justice.
Code: 
    The closest thing in our faith to Karma is  Original Sin weight  and the concept of generational curses.  Some Catholic theologians question the concept of generational curses derived from the sins of past generations.   I don't see the harm in asking God to purify our family lines back to Adam & Eve.    I know that in the Old Testament there are Divinely inspired writers who speak of  3 generations of descendants  punished for the sin while for some Godly action 1000 generations are  Blessed.

    There are some similarities that can be made by analogy  to Karma to our Christian Catholic Faith.  These analogies may provide understanding in  other religious belief systems different than our own.   These analogies also don't justify belief in Karma.

    Our  Catholic Catechism  is complete.  We don't need to add or subtract anything from it  because everything needed to get to Heaven has been provided.  The New Age system  leads one to believe that orthodox Catholicism is out dated and can benefit from combining paganism and occultism.  The only religion that is not acceptable in it's pure form in the New Age is orthodox  Roman Catholicism.  This is a big lie.

    The New Age would have one believe that the Teachings of Jesus and His Church are outdated and need to be supplemented with concepts and beliefs from other religions.
Specifically this is a veiled attack on the very Foundations of Christianity itself. The Catholic Church is Satan’s greatest obstacle to institutionalizing his kingdom of Hell & his corresponding New World Order religion. Satan wants Hell to be on earth.
Code: 
   St. Paul writes of  dominations, principalities, and powers that we as Christians battle.  These are nothing but very powerful demons that have attempt ot control and influence the  nations of the  earth. The Book of Tobit contains a description of Holy Angels battling these fallen angels which have demonic strongholds over various nations..

  Many of the great monasteries & convents of the world  have been closed or almost empty.  The peoples of these Holy Places protect the earth by curbing the influence of Satan by leading lives of  daily prayer, Masses, and penance.  The value of their efforts are inestimable.  These are  Holy Strongholds that Satan hates.

As the number of  persons, objects and places that are consecrated to God decreases Satan's kingdom increases.  As the practice of our Catholic faith in our daily lives decreases the kingdom of Satan increases.  We can see this in the News where the whole world is being torn asunder by war, poverty, hunger, diseases and in depraved acts of children.

We have to uphold our Catholic Faith and resist Satan's One World religion that is being promoted by those promoting the New World Order.  They do so by attempting to mix and dilute  foundational beliefs of our Christian Faith  to introduce a religious chimera, the religion of the anti-Christ.  

No,  I don't believe in Karma.  I believe that one can draw an analogy from Catholicism to religions that have this concept of  Karma.   The fact that one has to draw an analogy itself demonstrates that Karma is not of our Catholic Faith.
 
No, I do not believe in karma. It says basically “what goes around comes around” via reincarnation and such related beliefs/principles. Karma deals with eastern spirituality and it is NOT compatible with Christian teaching.

God rewards the righteous and punishes the sinner. St. Paul tells us:

"Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting. And in doing good, let us not fail. For in due time we shall reap, not failing. Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith." (Galatians 6: 7-10) Douay-Rheims Bible
 
I don’t believe in karma but I use the word karma itself sometimes for lack of a more appropriate word.
 
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