I was having lunch with a co-worker yesterday and he voiced what I would think is a pretty common belief in karma that pagans, irreligious, and religious share alike. He related the story of helping out a man on the side of the road who had run out of gas. My coworker said the man was very grateful and wanted to pay him back, but my coworker refused, saying, “It was only 10 bucks. I would hope somebody would do that for me, so if you see anybody else in the same situation you can pay me back by helping them.” He later went on to say that the man saw him years later in town and recognized him, thanking him again for helping out. My coworker said, “You see, I think everything comes back around, ya’ know?” Karma, basically.
Today, I was continuing my perusal of a Stanford University professor’s online lectures and his lesson on Behavioral Evolution struck me (click the hyperlink for the exact point in his lecture), because he was describing exactly the story of my coworker in terms of evolutionary behavior. The idea is straight-forward: species who are genetically or culturally (yes, other animals have cultures in the strict sense) predisposed to help each other out tend to outlive and outlast other species. If an organism sacrifices life or energy or resources (and is helped out reciprocally) to help a relative with the same genes, then the likelihood of their genes passing on to the next generation is improved. If a population of organisms exhibit this behavior, that population has a better chance of surviving and, thus, outlasting those species who do not. Assuming some form of organisms and animals have been procreating for the last several million years, it is not a stretch to expect to see some of the populations around today exhibit altruistic behaviors — and we do! Monkeys, elephants, wildebeests, dolphins — there have been many documented studies of cooperation and altruism in the animal kingdom. Thus, we wouldn’t be surprised that over time this becomes an emergent behavior that extends altruism even to distant relatives (such as the stranger on the side of the road). We humans sometimes cooperate for no apparent benefit because, way, way back when we lived in much smaller communities, it really did increase the odds of passing along our genes!
The idea of Karma is much easier to understand in this light. Now, we humans have added this mystical element that somehow everything magically comes back around, tit for tat, and I don’t hold to this; but, I no longer look down on somebody for espousing the idea. Heck, if some stranger helped me out with a flat tire, I wouldn’t refuse it based on the fact we only shared a couple of our hundreds of genes!
Video posted below:
Robert Sapolsky, Stanford University – Behavioral Evolution
