Anyway, now that I had time to think of it. I thought I could write a more coherent explanation of why I believe in Karma and that why conscience is practically linked to karma. P/S: Just so you know, my BF doesn't believe in karma.
So, I'll start off my defining my understanding of the word 'karma' (Aveyn's version lol). Karma is where the fear of retribution, whether directly or indirectly, will abhor someone from doing things that are considered as bad by the society or by the human race in general. In my very personal and humble opinion, this sort of karma is applied practically everywhere - from law enforcement (not that they work as well :P Not 100% definitely, but a solid 80% or above is pretty good) to teaching your child/children at home/school.
For example right.... you don't go out robbing people (well, not the normal sort of people anyway) because you fear retribution in form of 'justice' dealed by the enforcement agencies (the court, the police etc). However, this is just an example, retribution may come in may ways (some that may seem totally unrelated to your 'sins' or 'vices' or 'bad stuff that you do' [Lying is a prime example actually. One day, you'll get caught up in your web of lies and then, let's just see how you fall]) but since I do not really believe in a god/ gods, these retributions are not meted out by this entity/entities. It's life itself that will mete out the punishments - the people and environment included.
Conscience, on the other hand, refers to the clear understanding of good and bad that will abhor someone from doing the bad stuff and will encourage someone to do the good stuff. This conscience varies from person to person and it depends on the 'understanding' or lack thereof ('mock understanding' as I call it) of whether a thing is good or bad. Using the same example, you can also say that you don't go out robbing people because you KNOW that robbing people is a BAD thing to do but for some people, their reasoning may be robbing is not bad if you're robbing people who doesn't deserve their wealth in the first place (somewhat like a modern-day Robin Hood).
So, my reasoning is that you first learn about what things are BAD or what things are GOOD via 'karma'. Taking the same example, how do you know robbing people is bad? (This reminds me of the video of a mum trying to teach her little daughter to say 'no' to strangers :P) Anyway, when you started off, you would have absolutely no idea what is right or wrong, but as you grow older, your parents will teach you, the cartoons you watch will teach you and heck, even books will write that thieves and robbers are BAD people and that these BAD people will be caught by the GOOD people (the police in this case), so we should never ever do BAD things in order to not get caught. From there, you developed your so called conscience. You may feel that if you rob someone in the future, you will ever be able to face yourself or anyone you know (even though they may have no idea at all). By having a conscience, a sense of good or bad, you will get feelings of guilt.
However, there's a catch here. Conscience does vary from people to people as aforementioned and furthermore, I find that it is not very accurate due to this 'grey areas' in morality. You can even try to twist words around in order to convince yourself that you are doing GOOD when actually you are doing BAD stuff. Plenty of examples where this comes in... where people (of power, especially) decided that 'for the good for their people', they have committed atrocities.
For karma, not matter whatever you've done... whether they are good or bad, there will be equal retribution (or in other words, whatever you do will end up to you). So, let's say if you do bad stuff, you'll get bad returns; if you do good, you'll get good returns; if you just 'live and let live' (be neutral), you'll get a little of both good and bad returns (or maybe you'll just float through life without any major mishaps and will just experience some of the normal parts of life - this do include getting sick and old btw). You may try to mask the bad into good, but your consciousness/subconsciousness will know and when retribution comes, you will suddenly know as well. It may be immediate or it may only happen when you're on your death bed. Moreover, the retribution that you may get may not be public (so that everyone will know about it), so some people may say 'That person did plenty of bad stuff, but why are they living such a happy and comfortable life?'. Who knows? He/she may be suffering inside in order to pay the price of their actions. People that appear GOOD on the outside may have done huge BAD stuff on the inside/ in their past... There are ofc second chances, but you'll have to pay the price of your mistakes in the end, even though you may have already turned a new leaf.
The thing is everyone's done mistakes/ BAD stuff, so everyone will have certain amounts of misfortunes (major ones/small ones) in their life in order to compensate for their BAD actions. But if BAD thoughts do not translate into BAD actions, then there are no retribution, because that person didn't act out on it.
Accidental BAD actions are a bit tricky to reason - because 1. you did performed that BAD action and 2. you did not intentionally do that BAD action. I reckon it'll be something like doing a silly mistake in your exams. You knew the correct answer, but you did a silly mistake and lost your marks. Can you get back your marks? No, because you did made that mistake, no matter how unintentionally you did it.
But ofc, all these do not apply to clinically insane people, people with mental problems or people with a stunted sense of morality (this list may not be complete btw, just saying). Also, if you don't believe in these sort of stuff, these will definitely not apply to you as well (although well, if it does, you can just reason it away by using luck or the lack thereof :P).
I do realise that trying to type this sort of stuff in the middle of the night with an awfully tired body and mind and with plenty of other work (tuition... sigh), my reasoning will definitely be flawed. I'll try to polish this by perhaps giving more examples or by explaining more stuff in-depth. Unless I'm convinced otherwise, I'll still believe in this sort of karma because well, it's really hard to disbelieve it when it is so all encompassing.
After thinking about this for a bit, I realised that morality is a very weird thing lol. Anyway, to end this thing, I just wanna say that my karma is mainly based on the concept of 'What goes around, comes around'. Whatever you do will comes back to you - it may come in different, unrecognisable forms; it may even come back amplified by thousands of folds, but it WILL come back to you in the end.
And well, after saying all these, if anyone believes in my sort of karma, ofc they will be afraid. Heck, I've done plenty of bad things myself (minor ones, I think) and I know I will pay the price for them someday. I may not even be ready for them when they come (I doubt you can prepare for such a thing anyway), but by fearing bad retributions (karma), I'll strive to do as much good as I can in order to counterbalance the bad that I've done/will do (the exchange rate is unfortunately not 1:1, I believe). Sometimes, I'll just take the easy way out by doing something that can be considered as 'bad' lol. Anyway, and by getting a balance, I'm hoping to live my life as neutrally as possible since I know that it's really hard for me to try to tip the balance in the good direction lol. Especially when I have laziness as a trait that I'm too lazy to change... heh :P
Examples:
'Stuff' that are NOT caused by karma - Genetically caused problems are not part of karma. It's just genetics and is whatever your parents passed on to you. It is not getting part of your parents' karma transferred to you. Whatever problems you are born with is not karma's doing. Everyone started with a clean slate and you are responsible for your own slates. Once you have a sense of morality, the slate will start getting dirty/ will still remain clean (depending on how you act). Honestly, no one will have a totally clean slate by the end of life. If something bad happens to a lot of people in your area, it's probably not karma but it's more like a normal natural disaster lol. Also, I'm not saying ALL really bad illness that you get is caused by karma btw. It may be, but you may never know (even if you look deep inside you and see if you've done something really really bad in the past. Sometimes, you just don't know that you've done something bad).
Neutral returns/retributions - everything that life has to offer (both 'good' and 'bad' stuff, depending on your own personal definition of 'good' or 'bad' in this case). You will experience childhood (not matter how bad it is or how good it is, you'll still experience a 'childhood') and will grow as normal humans do. You will live your life as averagely as possible and end it as averagely as possible. This ofc means that you will experience sickness, old age, some natural disasters that you can recover from (nothing very major) etc, but nothing as devastating as a fire that destroyed your home, leaving you homeless for a very long time-kinda thing.
Bad retributions - Maybe, on your death bed, your only son who had inherited your billion-dollar company may tell you that he actually was not your son and that he is the offspring of a nemesis of yours when your wife had been unfaithful... (sounds like it's taken straight from a drama lol) but well, you get the idea. Stuff that is devastating FOR YOU, mainly.
Good retributions/returns - getting an unexpected gift from or have reconnected with someone you've helped in the past, for example. You'll definitely know when you get this - you'll get this warm-fuzzy feeling in your heart.
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