Karma.

The law of karma obeys our notion of justice - rewards for good behavior, punishments for bad behavior.

When this does not happen in this life we project it into future lives, thus giving rise to the idea of reincarnation.

The notion of natural justice does not seem to apply in life.

Job says, "'Why do the wicked live on......and no rod of God is against them.'"  Job 21:7a,9b (NRSV)

So natural justice is projected into the afterlife as judgment.

Perhaps these ideas are not universal laws at all.

Perhaps we have free will to obey or break the rules depending on the circumstances.

Paul says to waive judgment according to understanding.

But life is not chaos.

There are constants - day and night, summer and winter, hot and cold.....

Newton's laws apply.

But even Newton's laws break down with the very small (atoms) and the very large (galaxies).

So where does that leave us?

We have free will to  make choices but even our free will is conditioned by our experiences.

We make mistakes.

In human experience the chances are that if we treat people badly they will treat us badly in return.
But this is not a law.
People may choose of their own free will to return sympathy or even good for our bad behavior.

So the patterns and the rules are not what govern our lives.
They are merely guidelines for our corporate well-being.

The cause and the purpose of life is Love.


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]