8. Causality In Christianism
Passing a beggar who was begging for a few coins to save his hunger, I felt heartbroken and wanted to help. My friend, a Buddhist, advised me not to do it and said that this beggar deserved the tribulation and was suffering bad karma for his past evil life. He shouldn’t be helped because he has to suffer like this, until he completes compensation for his bad karma. That’s the law without exceptions. You can’t save anyone, not even the Buddha.
Maybe my friend is not familiar with Buddhist teachings, and does not understand the value of love, repentance, and karma dissolution.
Thinking of the beggar, I suddenly remembered the words of Jesus: “You will not be released until you have paid the last penny” (Mt 5:26).
How does Christianity understand causality?
- Causality in science and religion:
Causality is the laws of mechanics, physics, and psychology. It is objective and governs people. Everything that happens has a reason, either explicit or implicit.
It has solidarity no one can deny scientifically. Despite social distancing the covid-19 pandemic still spread from one person to another and to the whole world. Many times, we are innocent and suffer the consequences of others’ carelessness.
This is evident in genetics. Everyone’s DNA is passed down from their parents, whether they like it or not.
The collective unconscious is also mentioned. This is a complex but understandable problem that is often explained as the effect of causal law.
There is a saying that “The father eats salty food, the son will be thirsty”.
Likewise, prophet Jeremiah wrote: ““In those days they shall no longer say, ‘The parents ate unripe grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,’ but all shall die because of their own iniquity: the teeth of anyone who eats unripe grapes shall be set on edge” (Jer 31:29-30). The concept of collective kinship responsibility has gradually shifted to that of individual responsibility.
Going further, religions apply the causal law to the spiritual realm. According to them, the causal law also applies to moral life. When the body dies, good and bad karma still exist and always follow people who will be judged on their merits and sins, to be rewarded or punished according to their actions in the world.
I think the causal law is clear beyond dispute in the physical and psychophysiological mechanics. One day supercomputers may work out all causes and conditions and produce correct results.
In terms of spirituality, it is much more complicated because it involves human freedom and belief in the metaphysical world. If causality no longer exists, religion including Buddhism has no meaning.
- Causality and dependent co-arising in the bible:
Causality is natural in life.
The Bible says a lot about causality:
- “Whatsoever he sows, so shall he reap” (Ga 6:7).
- “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Cor 9:6).
- “When they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind” (Ho 8:7).
- “Either declare the tree good and its fruit is good, or declare the tree rotten and its fruit is rotten, for a tree is known by its fruit” (Mt 12:33).
- “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor 5:10).
The parable of the sower clearly illustrates causality and dependent co-arising (Lk 8:4-15).
If a seed is sown in a thorny bush or on a roadside, it will be crushed or eaten by wild birds; if it falls on rocks, there will be no moisture. On the contrary, a seed that is sown in good soil, with watery manure, will grow tenfold, a hundredfold. Seeds need a cause of a good place to bear fruit. If there is no cause or a bad one, there will be no result.
In the New Testament, the disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (Jn 9: 2-3). In another context Jesus said, “Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them — do you think they were guiltier than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?” (Lk 13:4).
The causal law is universal. A question is raised: Is the causal law objective and absolute in Christianity?
- Dissolution of the causal law: Love and grace
Buddhism believes that to dissolve bad karma, one must do good karma in the opposite. For example, when we accidentally say bad things to hurt someone, we should say good things to them to make up for it.
Likewise, Jesus calls first of all to repent, to love, to forgive, to bring about peace. Then almsgiving is meant to repay the karma; even a glass of water is also recognized by God. Zacchaeus voluntarily promised to pay back 4 times the damage he did to others and was praised by God: “Today salvation has come to this house” (Lk 19:9).
Causal law is objective law of matter. No one and nothing can escape that unchanging law, as long as they are in the physical world.
The mind is physical, what about the spiritual? According to Buddhism, the causal law applies to all spirituality, life after life.
In Christianity, people are governed by the causal law from this life to the next. God judges us from our merits and sins.
But God created all the laws. He is transcendent and has full power to decide in His will. In the parable of the garden owner who hires workers, many workers are envious of others because they have worked more hours but got paid equally by the owner. The garden owner said, “Am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?” (Mt 20:15) God is not completely governed by the causal law because He is the master of the laws.
Christianity believes that the sins we commit are not only against ourselves and others but also against God himself. In the parable of the prodigal son, when he returned, the son said to his father, “I have sinned against God and against you…” (Lk 15:18). To sin is to sin even against God.
And God is so great. Nothing can compare with Him and compensate for our sins. That’s why God, the Second Person, voluntarily came to earth to redeem us, and through His blood we were restored to grace.
The causal law is only applicable to everyday life among people in appropriate mutual compensation.
But there is a difference between man, who is a lowly creature, and the great God. Only the grace and sublime love of God Himself has exchangeable value.
We understand why God said: ” it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him”, in the story of the man born blind that we quoted.
CONCLUSION:
The above analysis shows us that, in front of God, we cannot proudly boast about our merits, like that Pharisee in the temple, boasting of his achievements in keeping God’s law, having contributed to the temple, etc. Man cannot do anything on his own, but needs God’s mercy and grace. “Without Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5) has such a meaning.
At the same time, we also see our responsibility, to cooperate with the causal law in the salvation about which Saint Augustine said: “God who created us without our help will not save us without our consent”.