Overpopulation - Humans are Animals

A friend asked me the other day "If I truthfully asked you to kill me, would you?". I said "Yes, if you actually wanted your life to end then I would", but would I really be able to kill somebody, especially one of my best friends?

What do we fear so much in death? Why is it so taboo to commit suicide, or to kill somebody? Other than religious values, I see no valid basis supporting this. We kill many, many animals every day.. so many we generally shrug it off if we witness an animal die. Humans are animals as well - the world was not made for man alone.

Overpopulation is affecting the world's population at an amazing rate. In 1961 the Earth had about 3 billion people, and they were using half of the sustainable resources of Earth. In 1986, the Earth had about 5 billion people, and they were using ALL of the sustainable resources of Earth. We destroy forests, we pollute the atmosphere, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. What is the worth in a single human life?

A human's life is no different than an animal's. One could argue that humans are more intelligent than animals, but does that make killing people with learning disabilities, people who are on life support, or people who are disabled any more justifiable than killing a human being without any of these disabilities?

I am not a vegetarian. I know that what I eat has been living and has been killed for no reason other than for a human to consume it. But I do wish that humans would realize that we are not the only creatures on this earth.

Karma - How it works

Dictionary.com defines karma as "Bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation". What does this really mean and how does it relate to reality?

Karma, opposed to what most think, is not limited to a spiritual representation of some other-worldly force. We witness this phenomenon in our daily lives, whether you want to admit it or not. How Karma works is quite simple, really, and fairly easy to understand and relate to. Shall we look at an example?

Say you find a wallet on the floor. What do you do? Well, the average person will most likely check the wallet for anything of value to them, pocket it, and then worry about what to do with the piece of junk after it is deprived of all material value. This, obviously, leaves the owner of the wallet without a wallet, and, depending on the person, this could be tremendously hard to recuperate from or simply mean driving to the nearest bank to withdraw some funds.

Now, what if you RETURNED the wallet without taking anything for yourself? Sure, you may get some reward for returning the wallet, but, most likely, this initial reward will not be as substantial as if you would have simply kept the wallet as person A had.

Notice how I said "initial reward".

In situation B, your life goes on, you returned the wallet, and you may or may not feel better about yourself.. whoop-dee-doo. But, the thing is, it doesn't just end there. The person you returned the wallet to has (depending on the person) a fairly high chance of returning the next wallets he/she come across. The person(s) that that person returns wallets to also have a fairly high chance of returning the next wallets he/she come across. And so on and so on. Sooner or later, one of these people may actually return the wallet of one of your loved ones or even yourself, and most likely you will need it more than you needed the initial wallet.

This is how karma works. It doesn't always happen, sure, but if you don't ever return any wallets to their respective owners, that deprives tons of people of their wallets when they lose them, and that lowers your chance of getting a wallet back when you lose yours.

This perception of karma can be applied to almost any situation. There is usually not one definite answer, but if you can ask yourself what you would rather happen you can figure out what path to choose.

If everybody did one more good thing for somebody every day, or every week, even every year, the world would be a better place.