Do you believe in Karma

[dtknowles]

In your list of deep theological reads you forgot Dr. Seuss.

I doubt your pastor or priest got thru seminary without reading some of those books and I don't mean Dr. Seuss.

Tim

[fixit]

I find the concept of karma to be ignorant of the deepest nature of man. If God is, indeed,holy,and cannot abide the presence of sin, then nobody would be in heaven! No one is good. We all have a deep seated evil in our hearts, from the earliest days of our conscious thoughts. That is why it was necessary to have the intercedent, Jesus. We are incapable of paying our own debt. With our first sin, our own blood becomes insufficient for the payment of our sin.

[dtknowles]

I find the concept of karma to be ignorant of the deepest nature of man. If God is, indeed,holy,and cannot abide the presence of sin, then nobody would be in heaven! No one is good. We all have a deep seated evil in our hearts, from the earliest days of our conscious thoughts. That is why it was necessary to have the intercedent, Jesus. We are incapable of paying our own debt. With our first sin, our own blood becomes insufficient for the payment of our sin.

No one is good, you believe that? Not even Mother Teresa? God has long abided the presence of sin. The biblical record is that God was only moved by the most abhorrent depravity. Do not presume that everyone is as sinful as you.

Tim

[abunaitoo]

Do I believe in Karma?????
Somewhat.
I believe good things happen when you are good.
In turn, bad things happen when your bad.
Bad and good is in the eyes of the beholder.
We all constantly see people getting away doing bad things.
That could be good karma to them?????.
And good people being taken advantage of, or wronged in other ways.
Is that bad karma????
So do I believe in Karma????
Somewhat.

[Blackwater]

[QUOTE=dtknowles;4880271]Do you believe that ones actions bring upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a the next. Do you believe that good deeds in this life will be rewarded with a better life? Do you believe that bad deeds in this life will be punished in this life or in an after life?

I believe that most, if not all, of the imagined "punishments" inflicted on us by God are not punishments, and they do not come from God, but are the simple and inevitable results of sin in our lives. God is often very long suffering before allowing the fit ends to occur when we have sin in our lives, but eventually, He always allows us to get the results we so ardently seek. I don't believe God punishes us. I believe He allows the natural forces that He created bring us to a point where we HAVE to recognize our sins, that we might turn from them. God is love, not punishment.

Do you believe it is possible to be a bad person and live a happy life?

This is one of those "trick questions." The answer depends on your definition and perception of the word "happy." If you mean a truly, deeply satisfying life, complete with some regrets and an appreciation of how much the Lord has guided us, even when we had no suspicion He was doing so, then no, people who choose to be what we call "bad," do so from a self-inflicted focus on themselves, and they're generally just eaten up with fear as well. It may not show, overtly, but it's there, whether we recognize it or not. And how can a person be "happy" when he's so irrevocably focused on their own miniscule selves, and so full of fear? The answer is, they can't. But people will argue these things 'till time passes away, I guess. But to no good end.

Do you believe it is possible to be a good person and always have to suffer?

Yes, if by "always" you mean like Job did. If you mean "always" in terms of the complete duration of their lives, then I would say "Very very seldom." Some folks are born with genetic defects, that makes them "Pay" in our general view, all their lives. But I've known some like this who were devout Christians, and some of the best examples of it I've seen.

There's something unique about suffering. It just aggrevates many, but some find in it, a reprieve from having to "prove" themselves, and thus, they tend to focus more on the internal matters than the external. And thus, they can become some of our finest examples of Christianity, and of love for their fellow man, and of forgiveness of those who wrong them. What a life some of them live, in Christ's view!!!

[fixit]

mother teresa had a firmly grounded understanding of sin in the heart of mankind. if you do the research, i think you'll be suprised at her humility and recognition of her own sin nature, which, by the way, is one of the foundational concepts of catholicism. further, i made no assumption, or accusation, of anybody's sinfulness being more or less than mine, only pointing out that EVERYBODY sins, with the only person who never sinned being Jesus Christ, Him being God incarnate. so, in bluntest terms, yes, i do not recognise that anyone is good at their deepest level. furthermore, the bible, which you denigrate by including with other books of philosophy and religion, calls out the depravity of mankind. what i will say concerning this interchange is this....we, that is humanity, errs greatly by using our standard to call whether one is good or not. the standard we should be using is God's standard! against that standard, no one can stand without the intercession of Jesus Christ.

[Scrounge]

Nothing seems to happen to them. You don’t know everything about their personal life. They may lose a lot of loved ones. They may have financial issues that we never hear about. Because we don’t know everything about their life they may be suffering.

And sometimes they wind up in the headlines themselves. Kharma in action Exibit 1: https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/21...d-coronavirus/