It does to a certain extent Phil, and I've heard you talk about karma before. But it is far from an exact science. In fact I'd say it's mostly bollocks; even if it does serve a good moral purpose.

It's like the whole heaven and hell thing; completely invented by the church to make us do as we are told. It's mostly superstitious/supernatural nonsense.

A baby that dies of cot death: what did it do wrong to deserve that? Some karma enthusiasts will even go as far as to say, "Well, it must have done something wrong in a previous life." Hmmmm, not very convincing.

While obviously there is a tendency to attract negative situations by behaving badly, it's not a certainty. There are countless examples of people who have gone through life fucking people over and have got away Scott free. We are asked to believe that they will be punished accordingly in the next life. Hmmmm, Midas smells a rat!

I think that we should try our best to go through life, having as much fun as possible as long as it doesn't harm others. I believe we should seek to do good and avoid making others suffer. But I don't think we should do this because there is some mystical pie in the sky energy at play. I think we should do it because we are all in the same boat.

In this way we could say that the most moral person is an atheist who does good and avoids bad. He does not believe that he will be rewarded or punished yet he chooses to behave correctly simply because it is the right thing to do and the thought of another human being suffering displeases him.