“God does not play dice” – Einstein
Does any event occur due to mere chance or is it predestined? This important question, if answered, can unravel a whole lot of mysteries in biology, physics, and chemistry. Consider the popular views on science that state how a collection of gases, solid matter, and different forces interacted with each other to create the greatest puzzle of all time: Life. How did different molecules combine to form DNA?
Let us consider an organism without visual functions that probably existed in the past. How did the organism evolve into one that had visual functions as complex as the eye? How did organisms evolve to the complex beings that we see today? Was it a conscious process or just chance in a Darwinistic world? If the process is a result of a cause-and-effect relation in a world, where there could be infinite causes leading to a single event, what was the first cause?
Some years back, a leading science magazine carried an article stating how subatomic particles behaved as if they knew exactly what to do, as if they had awareness. While we leave physicists to ponder on these puzzles, I wonder even if they had awareness what exactly would determine a particle’s behavior? The law of cause and effect is well known. Let us take the example of human behavior. We tend to make decisions based on our knowledge, likes, dislikes, fears, and many other factors. These factors could be termed as our conditioning or the cause of the decision. The decision taken and its results shape our future decisions. In short, it becomes part of our conditioned experience.
Karma, in this context, could be defined as conditioning. Karma in Hindi means “action.” Aren’t our actions shaped by our thoughts (or the lack of them)? What are our thoughts but conditioning?
Hindu and a lot of eastern philosophy define good karma and bad karma. Our results depend on our karma or our conditioning. The results desired might again be a part of our conditioning. For example, a pauper would want money, or a writer would want fame.
How does one stop doing karma? Or, escape the law of cause and effect. The world seems to be a result of this law. What happens when one stops “acting” or performing karma?
3 comments:
hey kelu, thats a very good one, just started reading, its in my favourites now, since i dont have the time to read right away, but will definitely make time, coz i want to :) good going dude!!
-Suma
Hi Arvind, I came via Ran's blog, No Religion Now. :-)
I liked what you had to say. Finally, somebody sensible. I appreciate somebody with something other than mainstream Christianity as their upbringing. I am surrounded by people who don't really have another reference than that, and you're a refreshing change. Thank you. I'll be back.
Arvind, I found a flaw in your thinking here. If all events are predestined then even the event of us discovering if such events are predestined or chance-outcomes will be predestined. All progress will be predestined and hence arguing that such a discovery will help all sciences (bio, phy etc) is futile because the progress itself will be predestined. I at times wonder if there is anything predestined. If we are to believe the slightest bit in the existance of parallel universes then the only possible explaination could be a probabilistic one. (Read my blog magnets-and-miracles.blogspot.com in which, i have discussed probabilistic events in terms of creator)
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