Sept 2021
‘Karma is not real; it’s psychological’
This above was the quip my 9-year old son, Siddharth made when he was asked what he had finally concluded on the notion of ‘Karma’.
We were speechless.
It was quite an understatement- the kind of response he makes when he is absolutely sure of something. If you prod any further, he would flatly decline to comment, turning away.
So, after few days, we asked him, how he reached at such a conclusion.
He goggled and showed an article.
https://www.yourtango.com/2020335125/is-karma-real
Now, nowhere in this article is a statement that is made that karma is not real.
However, at the end of long winding discussion on karma on various religions and Eastern philosophies, it states as follows:
Simply put, the way we perceive karma is not real. However, karma is a real social, psychological reaction to events. We all find our find our own unique ways to be the best person we can be. If karma is how you find your motivation, there’s nothing wrong with it, and believing in it can help you if you cultivate good karma, and hurt you if you don’t avoid bad karma.
Siddharth zeroed on this paragraph to conclude that karma is not real, and that it is psychological. It is bang correct. I don’t think I could have ever made him reach that conclusion by explaining it my way.
I felt that it as quite amazing- something which is a sort of Siddharth’s ‘coming of ‘(intellectual)age’’ ininterpreting conclusions between lines. Also, it is marking his ability in finding out answers when none was forthcoming.
The story goes like this:
Siddharth’s friend SD made a comment that karma will catch on people. This is what his mother had told him often (I don’t know whether there was a context to it). SD told Siddharth that people could be born again as ‘worms’.
Siddharth asked my wife about karma. She, in turn, referred the question to me.I deferred to answer it in the first go, as I was skeptical that I can explain it to a 9-year old.
But within few days, he figured it out himself!
And in the most economical terms: It’s all psychological!.
Terse. To the point.
After few days, I brought the discussion again.
I asked what his friend SD told him about karma.
He replied that his friend believed that karma would make one reborn as worms!
So, I asked Siddharth, did he believe in karma.
The answer was emphatic: No.
I asked, why?
He made a face and said that it’s not possible.
NOT POSSIBLE, mind you.
As I reflect on it, SD’s tying of karma with rebirth made Siddharth reach at his conclusion pretty fast. Siddharth knew how organisms evolve. In fact, he was a master on the subject. It was impossible for him to believe what was implausible by his understanding of biology and evolution. So, when he read through the article, he was quick to catch the relevant paragraph and conclude that karma is not real, and that it is ‘psychological’.
My reservation in explaining the whole thing to Siddharth was conditioned on my preconception that I will not be able to explain something to a 4th grader what adults mostly are not able understand. But here I was wrong.
Siddarth was not fed with bundles of myth and superstitions that most of the people who are born in this world are accustomed to.
What he had learned, however, was clearly more credulous.
He knew about evolution, he knew about dinosaurs ( As a 6-year old he could narrate the details of at least 25-30 types of dinosaurs). So for him evolution and prehistory was a ‘reality’ solidly etched in his reasoning system. He was not going to believe that human by their deeds can be ‘reborn’ as worms!
For me this is vindication of my long held conviction that our educational system should seriously account the reasoning ability of children. Our languages of common use (LCU) are poor instruments for reasoning, and you need supplementary tools to help reasoning. But this can be achieved with much less effort if children are not infused with myths and superstitions from the moment they start to understand the world. In this regard, western society, especially Europe and Australia have advanced fast. Churches are liquidated and made to cinema halls and bars. The European Union, itself, is the outcome of the evolution of a post-religious society in Europe. Apart from the myths-dissolving catastrophe of World War II and the subsequent Cold War, the singular most important act that transformed Europe was the almost missionary work of the duo Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.
Richard Dawkins
Christopher Hitchens
I proudly remember the position I made way back in 1999 on the nature of reasoning in Languages of common use, and how it scuttles thinking.
Also, I revisit the presentation I made in Azim Premji University’s Philosophy of Education series 2013 ( Redefining education based on epistemology).
From my experience at that conference, I feel we are long way behind Europe. The social studies sphere are dominated by ‘cultural/moral relativists’ who I am afraid, cannot think clearly on vast majority of issues dealing with correct thinking. I remember my communication with educationalist and philosopher Dennis C Philips whom i met in Bangalore at the conference. Phillips lamented that situation is identical in United States. Here, I strongly believe that people who teach humanities should have strong grounding in methods of science before they start to learn and teach their disciplines. I still see people teaching English and related fields using methods of Sigmund Feud and Carl Jung as their crutches, without even caring to know that these are figures long redundant and needing rest in the dustbins of history. These pseudoscientific treatises are good breeding fields for irrational thinking processes. You can never reach at consensus by maintaining irrational thinking. The prerequisite for reaching at durable consensus is rational, evidence-grounded thought.
Having said this, I do not mean that people who practice science are all rational beings. Most people practice the fruits of science without knowing the sociological and historical forces behind the evolution of science as an enterprise* in Europe. Here one has to see science is an enterprise- and its methods the greatest of human consensus-forming device. It’s a whole community of action. Tit bits of developments of ‘facts’ of science here and there will not make science. Science is its methods. Science as an enterprise clearly has its evolution in post-Enlightenement Europe. Pasting below is a short review of one of the cardinal debates that defined the methods and course of Western science.
https://www.skepticsvocabulary.in/leviathan-and-the-air-pump-hobbes-boyle-and-the-experimental-life/
For those who want a refresher on these counts to nurture children who can think, I would recommend the following books
- The Greatest Show on Earth
- The Magic of Reality
- God Delusion
- all by Richard Dawkins
- Cosmos and the Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan
- Paradigms Lost by John Casti
Recommendations for growing kids:
- Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins –age 7 plus; with help- 5 plus
- The Story of Life by Katie Scott – age 5/6 plus
- DK’s Children’s Illustrated Animal Atlas – age 4/5
- Extinctosaurus; Encyclopedia of Lost and Endangered Species- a little pricey, but worthwhile edition for children to learn prehistory – age 5/6 plus
The trick is to establish a scientific narrative of the world early enough so that children are immune to disconnected myths and supernatural stories.
Here, introducing Darwin and his devices should be considered almost fundamental. I think Darwin’s narrative of evolution is more ‘magical’ than anything any charlatan has to offer. Richard Dawkins uses this ‘magic wand’ in almost all his books. Understanding animal behavior and motives provide children remarkable insights into the nature of righteousness of human society. It is counterintuitive, but it is real. It’s a kind of a connect with reality that none of false narratives of myths and superstitions would be able to dislodge. The key is to make kids understand the core foundation of reality- and then make them differentiate it with the rest.
The texts I am certain would shunt child’s thought are the following.
To be absolutely discouraged
- All kinds of myths and superstitions
- All religious texts
- Amar Chithra Katha on the dead kings and Puranic characters
In fact, I would say introducing such narrative early enough is a kind of psychological child abuse. Once imprinted most of the people would not be able to get out of the bobby traps these irrational narratives create. People get out of these traps by huge amount of effort, involving hundreds of hours of reading and thousands of hours mental disquiet. I am certain as we evolve introducing children to these narratives would considered as a serious child abuse.
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