'Karma' and 'sin' as primitive models describing modern Evolutionary Biology

In this post, I would like to propose a new theory that reconciles the quasi-religious concepts of 'Karma' and 'sin' with what scientists now know about biology and the epigenetic transmission of trauma. I would like to explore the idea that karma and sin is more accurately described as trauma stored in the organism.

My hypothesis is that the religious (and societal) concepts of karma and sin are, in fact, ancient intuitions of what we now know as the epigenetic trans-generational transmission of trauma. In other words, karma or sin is a family's child-rearing habits, unconsciously-programmed by the previous generations child-rearing habits. This chain of birth, and re-birth, within a family bloodline, is the 'reincarnation' process, and 'karma' is the extent to which one generation is unconscious of the negative child-rearing patterns it was subjected to; and simply repeats them on the next generation.

The metaphorical escape from the Wheel of Karma, 'enlightenment', or the 'ascension to heaven', is to fully remember childhood and to not repeat traumatic episodes by subjecting your children (your re-incarnation) to them. For example, a person must remember the full horror of their alcoholic father to avoid unconsciously being drawn to an alcoholic partner and repeating the abuse (karma) on their own children (reincarnation). Obviously, many more subtle traits are also passed on. This is what Freud called the 'compulsion to repeat'.

This interpretation of karma as trauma allows us to refine and distill Buddhist and Christian teachings (or religious teachings in general) to one simple principle: Value and protect the rights of children.

To begin, here's a definition of Karma. Let's use the one from Wikipedia:

"Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म; IPA: [ˈkərmə] ( listen); Pali: kamma) means action, work or deed. It also refers to the spiritual principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect).
Good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deed contribute to bad karma and future suffering.

Here, we can see that the definition of karma perfectly describes epigenetic trans-generational trauma repetition.

Epigenetics is the principle that genes are not fully determinant of a person's fate, but that genes respond to environmental triggers and then either express, or do not express themselves in an individual. For example, you may have a genetic predisposition to a certain cancer, but it will only manifest as cancer if you are put under certain stresses –– for example, if you are beaten as a child and this forms your core world-view in relationships, which you subconsciously repeat throughout life.

More invisible traumas, like leaving a child to 'cry it out' in a devastating affect storm of abandonment can also cause a world view; which causes gene expression; which leads to disease later in life. There are also likely traumas we have yet to fully identify because they are so societally normalised. Doctor Gabor Máte talks about these concepts here:

The actions of the individual as a parent, and our cultural response to children, therefore defines the future of the species.

But, it is not enough for a person to follow the best practises they know as an individual in the child-rearing or society-creating process, because the 'karma' or the 'sin' –– the root trauma –– is inherently unconscious to begin with. It is unconscious because the brain is known to repress traumatic material and then 'act it out'. To put it bluntly: Many of us are traumatising our children and each other. Often, without this intention, but simply because we have not identified our own traumas and simply repeat them as if 'normal'.

This is the basic pattern of evolution: Repetition with very small variation.

However, we now have the tools and awareness to reflect on and excavate our childhood conditioning and change it. Not least, using the tool of language.

Now: The definition of sin, again from Wikipedia:

"Sin is the act of violating God's will by transgressing his commandments.
Sin can also be viewed as any thought or action that endangers the ideal relationship between an individual and God; or as any diversion from the perceived ideal order for human living.
To sin has been defined as "to miss the mark"."

Again, to reframe this from an epigenetic perspective, consider this new reinterpretation of sin:

"Trauma (sin) is the act of violating a child's (God's) will by subjecting the child to trauma (transgressing his commandments).
Trauma (sin) can also be viewed as any thought or action that endangers the ideal relationship between an individual and a child (God); or as any diversion from the perceived ideal order for human living."

Sin used to exist as an abstract religious concept. But it can now be concretised in a modern biological framework.

Religious texts (or more accurately; their scholars) were confused about exactly who God is. Quite simply (biologically and spiritually) he is all children. To sin is simply to repeat trauma on a child (the embodiment of 'God', in other words: The Universe.)

In conclusion, 'heaven' and/or 'enlightenment', in the theory I propose, is not a personal state of awareness to be attained through organised religious practice. Instead, these states describes a global, planetary state which we are evolving towards together through technology and emerging consciousness.

The primitive misunderstanding was to place the divine outside of the material –– in a symbol system. When the divine is so clearly within it, very scientifically grounded in the people we call children.

As we begin to understand that many of our religious texts, in fact, describe an intuitive sense of what we now know to be biological processes in a physical realm, we will recognise that all children are Jesus, Buddha, Krishna or [insert your favourite symbolic saviour here] and to attain 'heaven' or 'enlightenment' is to become aware of the forgotten traumas (sins or karma) of our own childhoods, and not repeat them on the next generation.

In short, science is now delivering the religious (re-connective) information required to evolve us to the next level of awareness.

It's an exciting ride.