Goodbye, Karma

I'm in a bit of a pickle. I need to decide, fairly quickly, whether to tell the truth, or tell a lie.

The truth would hurt someone, but the lie would protect him. But telling a lie is a sin, right? It's just the wrong thing to do. And doing the wrong thing now can come back to bite me in the ass later, right? Like, karma.

But I don't believe in sin, because I don't believe in God. But karma, I believe in karma. I believe that my actions today could affect what happens to me in the future. The very thought of karma comforts me when some douchebag steals my parking space. He'll get his! What comes around, goes around.

But wait. If I don't believe in God, then why do I believe in karma?

If I don't believe in some supreme, omniscient being, why would I believe that there's something else out there in the universe that is paying attention to everything we do and making sure we get rewarded/punished appropriately?

Oh.

I don't! I don't believe in it. I don't believe in karma. Now THIS is the kind of enlightenment I'm interested in!

I suddenly feel free! I can do anything I want, and the only retribution I can plan on facing is that delivered by another human being, most likely in a court of law.

Now, I'm still going to continue trying to be a good person. The Judeo-Christian philosophy of telling the truth no matter the consequence still plagues me, so no worries, I won't turn into deceitful, cheating asshole. However, when it comes to more ambiugous situations like this, where the truth hurts, and the lie protects, I might just bend my morals a bit. But just a bit.