The law of karma is perfectly just
because it is perfectly natural and unbiased;
not created or directed by any imperfect supernatural and biased lawmaker.
Question: If karma exists to punish the evil and reward the good, who assigns karma? Shouldn’t there be God doing it?
Answer: Karma doesn’t exist to do this or that, because it is a natural law without will – just like gravity for instance. We don’t say gravity is assigned by anyone. It is naturally there for everyone; not unnaturally or supernaturally there only for some things or beings. Karma is natural because it operates like gravity for all. Just as gravity doesn’t differentiate good or bad people, karma doesn’t either. It is a law however, that evil deeds lead to suffering and good deeds lead to happiness.
Based on the thinking that there ‘must’ be an assigner, if there is a God assigned to assign karma, there is the question of who assigned God to do it. If he needs no assigner, it is simpler to say nature is naturally there, with karma as one of nature’s laws, with no assigner needed. It is thus more natural to see the idea of God as an assigner to be assigned by those who do not understand the above.
If there is a good and almighty creator,
he would not create or sustain any evil or suffering.
Since both are abundant, he does not exist.
One of the most incomprehensible disclaimer creationist ever claimed was that god did not create evil but he allowed it. The question is since god is the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent being, how does something like evil that was never created manage to exist? That clearly proves that certain sort of existence can do without creation or a god. How does one allow something that was never created to exist? How does evil find it’s existence? Unless it was there before even god began or it was a spillover from another universe beyond god which cannot be explained. One explanation which I was shared on was the presence of evil is the absence of god just like a piece of material with a hole, a hole is the result of an absence of the material. If this explanation is true, was god absence all the time which suggests the presence of evil? Was there a lack of god or is god lacking in some ways that contributed to the presence of evil? Since god did not create evil, but he allowed it, the next question would be is god capable of evil? The usual line we hear all the time is god is all good. But going by historical track records, incidences of a supposedly perfect and wise god instructing believers to kill and thereby putting him as low as man, are those actions a shame or a glory? Are these actions evil? Should the history of deaths fueled by religion be celebrated? The actions of these man are filled with so much god to the extent of fanaticism. How then can evil exist when it is wholly holy? If society has never progress to the current stage of life, will heretics or infidels continue to be punished and persecuted in the ancient ways of man in the name of religious glory and fervour? If such atrocities are deemed evil, how is god capable of evil which he has never created to exist? Since god doesn’t believe in a creator of a creator, the absence of god is the presence of evil. What then is absent in god? Whenever I read religious texts, I tend to side the protagonist and certain events seemed justified if we take sides with the protagonist especially if we are on the same side. But if god is the master creator of both the protagonist and the enemies of the protagonist, why then does a god want to set his creations against one another and promote discord rather than concord? It is true that if a creator really exists, he can make or break anyone at his whim or fancy. If the back of one’s hand is flesh. The palm of one’s hand is flesh. Does it really work to hurt either? I always question if a creator is free from the laws he create, nobody polices him. He is above and beyond his laws. Even if he breaks his own rules and laws, nobody knows. When I learnt about karma, it really put my perspective back to the track that Everyman is accountable to themselves in the end. We make our own credits and debits by which we enjoy due to the abundance of it or suffer due to the lack of it. By sheer effort of our own, we are the one’s who will benefit and are convinced of our sincerity based of the effort we put in to change for the better. We live on nobody’s credit which is the truth. Try using one’s credit card. The illusion of some company paying for us but the reality comes when the bill comes. There is always a payback time. Karma is an amazing law. It is not owned by any or created by any. It puts the onus back to whoever acts on it via our body, speech and mind regardless of one’s status, power or wealth in any of the six realms, gods included. The example given here is gravity. I would like to think of karma as an echo. It is there whenever an ego is there to interact with it via our body, speech and mind. Even the echo disappears, it continues to be born if we act on it. I would like to think of karma as a boomerang. One that returns to you. If it did not return to you. It will be returned to you by someone who got hit by you. I also would like to think of karma like a mirror. The moment we enter the field of the mirror’s presence, it engages us. The moment we step out of it, the mirror releases us. It is always there for us when we are there for it. When we make an ugly face in the mirror, that ugly face is returned to us. When we make a smiling face, it smile at us in return. Coupled with our alaya consciousness, karma is a complex subject and is an important part of our spiritual dna. Maybe it’s time to do an infographics on it so that we can see this aspect of truth and steer away from answering every doubt with a convenient closure of the word “god”. Buddhism is an investigative religion. The idea of karma is very much alive in our modern world. My personal idea of we serving ourselves our own justice is very much alive in crime investigation work. Take for example those CSI dramas, a nail or a fingerprint, some DNA from the vehicle, drink,…..etc eventually leads one to those involved in the crime scene or those who are karmically linked in a situation. Isn’t this modern karma at work? Even the idea of imprints and cycles are very much alive. Look at our secular world of creating cycles and cycles of desires to create repeated consumption and consumerism. Look at all the branding, messages pouring all over from TV, radio, Internet…..etc trying to leave imprints of impressions onto our perceptions. In Buddhism, we preach that the gods are mistaken that they are creators. If indeed there is a god who is above his own laws, I am inclined to believe that if god can allow evil, surely a white lie or moment of being mistaken won’t hurt as much as all the evil he can actually allows.