I did not make this up. Hinduism says exactly this, here, at this link: https://www.dlshq.org/download/karmas-and-diseases/#_VPID_1

Some examples

Who casts lustful look on women, who eyes others’ property, whose heart burns at others’ well-being, who visits nautch-parties: Result is permanent sight loss

Lawyers and advocates who twist truth and falsehood in court-cases:

Get colour-blindness, saint vitus’s dance, squint-eye and cataract; are born with a deformed body and afflicted with loss of memory.

Just so you know, if you say that in an optometry OSCE when they ask ‘what is the aetiology of colour blindness’- you get thrown out. Failed, and removed from the course too. Colour blindness is an X linked recessive trait. Nothing to do with morality.

This one is interesting.

Cruel doctors who ill-treat patients, and give worthless medicines charging high rates, who inject aqua and charge high fees,

Karmic next life consequence:

Are born as women and have womb-disease. Their conceptions and delivery will be attended by severe complication, pain and will mostly result in abortion.

This is a male coded, patriachal, justification, for misogyny.

It is sick. It is evil.

A perfectly omnibenevolent, just God, if they exist, would not allow for discrimination of the opposite sex. They would also know the aetiology of colour blindness as being linked to autosomal genetics. A perfectly omniscient God cannot make factual blunders of this magnitude.

Perfect excuse. This is a get out of jail free card for mistreating women, for shaming them, and also for explaining away abortions as ‘your deserved moral punishment’

This one is bullshit.

Who blaspheme the Supreme Lord, speak ill of saints and scriptures:

Result is tongue cancer.

Reality:

Tongue Cancer is most commonly a squamous cell carcinoma arising from the mucosal epithelium of the tongue. The exact cause is multifactorial, involving environmental carcinogens, viral infection, chronic irritation, and genetic susceptibility. (Mayo Clinic)

“The common aetiological factors for tongue cancer are tobacco use, alcohol abuse, HPV infection, betel nut chewing, poor oral hygiene, chronic irritation, immunosuppression, and premalignant oral lesions. Tobacco and alcohol together are the most important risk factors.” (NCBI)

These last ones make my blood boil.

Maharaurava is of the same type. Those men who indulge in passions are eaten here by carnivorous (flesh-eating) animals.

Passions are intense emotions.

Autism makes you feel and act on intense emotions. I worry all day about my best friend Vihaan.

Is that sinful?

Passions can also mean desires.

Autism gave me a lot of special interests as a kid: harmless things, woodlouse collecting, Minecraft, and more.

Here, it’s saying that those things - having ‘intense emotion’, ’having obsessions’- lead you to be consumed by animals, alive, after death.

That is not inference.

That’s deductive reasoning.

This, to me, is evidentiary proof Hinduism was written by:

Humans. Homo sapiens. Who operated under neurotypical norms and who thought those who were different, those who were too much, too intense, too weird, too off piste, neurodivergent people:

Are sinners.

Hinduism says cerebral palsy is a moral punishment for “servants who pretend to work and thus ruin their masters“, as per the source.

Get paralysis and trembling of limbs and palpitation.

I can’t think of a more direct description of the condition. That is what CP is, limb paralysis, presenting as quadriplegia, hemiplegia. Destroys lives.

Another one.

Who drink intoxicants and liquors, and indulge in immoral acts:

Will be born as weaklings, underdeveloped or premature birth and suffer from neurasthenia and general debility.

Weaklings?

This was written by males. Neurotypical, male, pricks.

I was born extremely premature. So was Vihaan.

And according to Hinduism we are ‘weaklings’? ‘Immoral’ in past lives?

Weakling is a word used by the dominant, aggressive, neurotypical male to conquer small boys in classrooms. Small, timid boys get picked on by larger ones.

We are not weaklings. And if you are EP and reading this, you aren’t either.

Scientific literature says otherwise.

“ELBW survivors display higher levels of cautiousness in their 30s compared to controls... individuals born at ELBW or VLBW display fewer antisocial and delinquent behaviors than their NBW peers in young adulthood.”

Biological Psychology - ScienceDirect

(ELBW can be taken as a proxy for those born EP. The two groups overlap more or less.)

But that isn’t really why I’m here.

Hinduism prescribes cancer as a moral punishment for burning it’s sacred texts.

Who burn sacred books and destroy spiritual literature —>

Get gastric ulcers and cancer. (From the source)

Cancer has nothing to do with morality. It is an amoral agent.

Just know none of this would get you any marks in any medical exam, ever.

That makes me feel better.

Sure.

Invented, self serving pseudoscientific bullshit can allow us to pardon innocent kids dying of septic shock and neutropenia in hospitals as deserved, meant, or destined.

Traditional Hindu teachings, particularly in the Dharma Shastras and Puranas, emphasize that suffering is never random. It is a natural consequence (Phala) of a soul's previous actions. [1] 

• The Individual as Creator: Every person is the creator of their own destiny. If a Hindu asks "Why me?", the scriptural answer is that their current situation is the exactly correct situation for their soul, given its previous history.
• Atonement, Not Punishment: Suffering is viewed not as divine punishment, but as a mechanism for atoning for sins committed in former lives. To fight or complain about the "debt" is seen as a failure of understanding.
• The Debt Must Be Paid: Avoiding suffering in this life is believed by some to merely transfer the pain to the next life. Therefore, enduring terminal illness with "detachment and awareness" is seen as a way to be one's own saviour. [1, 2, 3]

 

• Repaying the Bank: Online practitioners often argue that the Atma (soul) is the one experiencing the karma; while it seems unfair to the 17-year-old boy, the Atma deserves it.
• Liquidation: In cases of severe childhood cancer, it is argued that the body is merely a vessel through which the soul pays off its balance to finally achieve Moksha (liberation). [4, 5]

 

When they survive?

Congrats.

God granted you a pardon because he saw you and thought “You’re meant for something bigger. I like you. Let’s turn off that switch.”

In Hindu devotional thought, when a boy survives a condition as severe as stage 4 Leukaemia, the narrative shifts from the "debt" to the active Kripa (Divine Grace) and Sankalpa (Divine Will) of God. Here is the logical breakdown of why God specifically chooses to save a child in this framework: 

1. Grace Overrides Karma (Kripa)

The most common argument is that while Karma is the law, God is the Lawgiver and can grant a "pardon" at any time. 

• The Logic: Survival is seen as a direct intervention where God "burns" the remaining karmic seeds without requiring the physical body to die.
• Why Him? Divine grace is often seen as "unconditional" (Ahetuka Kripa). God saves the boy not because he "earned" it, but because the collective prayers (Prarthana) of the family and his own pure devotion reached a critical threshold that triggered divine intervention.  Krishna.com +2
• The Logic: If he survives, it is argued that God has a specific task for him—such as becoming the ophthalmologist he dreams of being.

"God saved him because he is meant to be a healer."

His survival is the proof that his destiny changed from "one who suffers" to "one who relieves suffering"

The cancer was the "fire" that tested the family's faith and the boy's strength.

By surviving, the boy proves that he has passed the test. God saves him as a "reward" for the endurance and devotion shown during the darkest hours.

Direct inference is what?

Children who die of cancer are too weak, too pathetic, and too cowardly, and too un-strong. Hence God does not save these children as they do not show enough strength, endurance, or faith.

From an actual post:

“Why did God give you cancer?
God allowed it, right? Because He’s in control?”

The little boy didn’t hesitate.

“Because He chose me.
Because I’m a special boy.”

The same selfish, biased, favoritist God also chooses which kids are special enough to be saved from sepsis and organ failure.

From verbatim online commentaries:

Divine Intervention via Faith: "Our divine amma never fail to amaze us. She always makes sure her children come out victorious thru any problem. All we must do is in return is have complete faith".

While the boy who dies is respected for paying his debt, the boy who survives is elevated as a sign that God can change destiny specifically for those meant to be "palpable earthly Gods" like doctors or healers.

Specifically for those meant to be "palpable earthly Gods" like doctors or healers.

Specifically for those meant to be "palpable earthly Gods" like doctors or healers.

Specifically for those meant to be "palpable earthly Gods" like doctors or healers.

So my best friend, what, with his ego free un arrogant hopes of becoming a doctor just to help people and because he liked biology-

Was never meant to do anything but die crying in a hospital, scared, alone, with severe neutropenia as his organs failed one after another.

And the boy next door?

Oh.

He was chosen to be a God on Earth- he was chosen for something bigger-

So he lived.

Online communities often frame the boy who survives as a "Warrior of God" or a "Miracle Man", implying his soul had a higher purpose that justified "interfering" with his karma. Conversely, the boy who dies is described as having finished a "sentence" where the "bottom had just fallen out" because the karma was absolute

"If someone has cancer because of their bad karma... and you cure their cancer... their karma can be burnt off in a different way. Alternatively if God determines your destiny is to die... that will happen regardless."

🖕🏽human religion.

You do not get to go around on social media screaming

“GOD CHOSE ME- ME TO LIVE FOR A HIGHER PLAN. I DESERVE THIS! GOD CHOSE ME! IT WAS MY DESTINY!”

When there are millions and millions and millions of innocent children screaming and crying in hospitals around the world as they bleed to death and their organs fail and their brains go into anoxia.

It wasn’t destiny.

Another example:

Treatment-Related Mortality for Leukaemia by Country

~37.7% (Primary causes: Infection & Haemorrhage)- Nigeria.

Less than 5% (Standard care)

Overall Survival (<20%): Experts note that survival rates in Nigeria remain below 20%, a stark contrast to high-income settings. Source: Stakeholders Seek Improved Care for Children with Cancer

This is largely due to:

Western nations colonised the global South, decimated their infrastructure, stole billions, reduced their capacity to install healthcare facilities.

And now?

“I’m a Special Boy. God chose me” when the boy in the West is prayed for to Jesus and survives

But the equally kind, moral boy in Ghana or Nigeria who is prayed for to Jesus equally as fervently doesn’t get to say that.

Why?

Colonialism and human cruelty create injustice. Naturally.

We need a tool to justify that injustice.

We need a tool to justify marital rape.

We need a tool to justify treating women like shit.

We need a tool to justify conquest over animals.

We need a tool to justify - .

So- we invented religion. AHA. Get out of jail free card.

“You, hmm. You’re dying there, bleeding to death of organ failure because - hmm. You, you weren’t, chosen, by God. You simply were destined for that. Must have not had a high enough plan.”

”And me? Oh yes! I was chosen you see, that’s why I went home from hospital and you, died. God saw me and thought- this one’s special. “

A plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India, just a few years back. Supposed to head to London.

But no.

A random engine failure made it go down and hit a medical college, killing those in the college and those on the plane barring one.

The one who lived chose to jump out of the passenger window.

Chose. Chose. Chose. Chose. Chose.

God didn’t save you in that moment.

You saved yourself.

If that man said ‘God chose me to live and also determined the other passengers should die’”

You aren’t being honest.

You’re being bloody arrogant.

God did not choose you.

You chose yourself in that moment.

And the others on that plane?

They didn’t get a chance to choose.

Hello

I would want you to consider this scenario.

A Hindu boy has been diagnosed with terminal, end stage cancer.

He has stage 4 Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and is in his three last weeks of life. He has autism and is extremely premature. He is 17 years of age. The doctors have told him “there’s nothing we can do for you. Sorry. We tried, but, you are dying in 3 weeks.”

This boy is suffering, every day. He is in severe pain. He cannot walk anymore. He cannot even type one letter on a phone. He has severe neutropenia, zero immunity. Even a common cold, a sore, a cut- can take his life. He is at risk now, of sepsis, intercranial haemorrhage, and, now, death, in 3 weeks.

What sort of past life proportional incurred karmic debt, actions, or deeds, or Prārabdha Karma (Karma ‘bearing fruit’ in this person’s lifetime), or Roga Karma, karma which arises in the form of disease, could this person have done?

What sort of proportional things must he have done for this scenario to manifest?

We would not tolerate this in healthcare.

I am a student in Optometry at the moment, however in a few years, during CLIP (my placement year)

If I told a young girl with an inter-cranial mass and life threatening papillodema that God chose not to remove your tumour for reasons unknown, or that they had past life karmic debt, playing out now in real time:

You know what would happen to me?

Reported to the GOC. Formal complaint. Hearing.

Permanent expungement.

Screamed at by my tutors. By my program lead. Rightfully so.

I would lose my license.

I would be removed from my university.

I would lose everything.

I lost my best friend recently to cancer.

I haven’t spoken to him in a month. We were talking via an email click system- and then one day he just, went quiet, and I never heard from him again.

I knew it was coming. He told me a long time ago.

So when it happened, I knew.

He had leukaemia- blood cancer, and like so many kids with leukaemia, his death was in no way contingent on morality or past life karmic debt.

That is just sick, selfish meaning making we invent after the fact to justify the survival of those who live, and explain away, coldly, the deaths of those who die.

Survivorship bias.

A cruel, disgusting way to invent meaning out of events governed by stochasticity.

There are aspects of Hinduism I love. The parental affection between siblings. Normalised raksha bandhan type protection between close friends in some contexts. Selfless service. The parental devotion given to animals in so many of our homes.

These are beautiful things on their own.

I just wish- I wish that we did not invent excuses to justify other’s suffering while also providing a free pass for why ‘I lived’.

And in many ways, that makes me upset.

Vihaan and I were best friends. We had both been born extremely premature at 25 weeks gestation. We had both weighed around 700 grams at birth (*750 grams).

We both had autism, had IEPs, and received SENCO support too.

He protected me from maths. From Indian classroom realities. From my bad dreams. From talking about loud noises (yes). From talking about academics.

Not even my bad dreams were allowed to enter conversation.

He cried when I told him my rigid contact lens fitting in optometry labs had hurt me. (And then afterwards told me that if he had been my partner, he wouldn’t have put it in at all and would’ve just made up a completely correct fit assessment — as per the awesome bestie he was.)

——————————————————————————

If that level of methodological, ethical rigour applies to optometry - a profession which deals with and saves lives -

It should apply to reality as well.

We gamble with lives for reasons pertaining to our ego.

“I lived, god bless” becomes “you died, chosen one.”

It is ethically disgusting.

Imagine.

We are in Nerul East, Sector 17. We are in Sector 17’s local hospital, M.Thackeray Hospital Nerul.

A doctor in India, Dr Rajesh Mehta, is with a 17 year old child with leukaemia .

He has stage 4 Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and is in his three last weeks of life. The boy has autism and is extremely premature. He is a kind, gentle, affectionate, timid young boy who dreamt of opening a small eye clinic in Nerul with his best friend (22), an optometry student. He dreamt of stargazing, Goa trips (he is South Goan) with his friend, sleepovers. He dreamt of a life like other kids.

He never got that.

3 weeks left.

He asks the doctor:

“Kya am i going to die?” (Crying). “I, I, I’m scared. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. Please. Please. Please.”

Rajesh tells him:

“beta, you have past life karmic debt. That is why you are dying, and why no one can save you, and why the prayers didn’t work. Even prayer is not enough sometimes, sometimes it is not enough to burn off the past life debt- ”

“It is God’s plan, Vihaan. That is all.”

He breaks down crying.

“ what? Pun (but), what? What?”

Rajesh reinstates his position.

“you have written fate, past life Prarabdha Karma (in Hinduism, the result of past life actions - which can manifest in the form of physical illness like incurable cancer.).

“That is why you are going to die in 3 weeks.”

His voice quivers.

“The boy next door recovered. That boy. Yesterday, na? He got better and went home. You discharged him yesterday, na?”

Rajesh responds. Nods.

“Yes. He got better.”

“That was God’s plan, Vihaan. He was meant to get better. Fate. Kismat. It was written for him. And likewise, your death was written for you, in this way. He writes all our futures before we know them.”

”But don’t worry. It’s for the-“

”What about the boy?”

”The boy next door? Yes. He’s getting better now. God helped him through. It was his fate, destiny to get better.”

”and it wasn’t mine”

”no.”

“Be accepting, Vihaan.”

(Blame the victim and call them a moral failure for lacking humility.)

Vihaan screams at him now.

“Vihaan, beta. You are only young. Sirf ek child hai. But it was written. Written that you were going to die- past life debt, as we discussed, and good karma for the boy next-“

That doctor would be struck off the day they said that.

As they should.

—————

That was fiction. But the idea isn’t.

I’ve gone online. I’ve spent weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks online.

You can find argument after argument just like this, from netizens across the Web, across decades, websites, platforms, you name it.

I’ve seen Hindus argue that ‘children who get cancer and pass away pass away because of the effects of their past life karma.”

An exact comment from elsewhere: No God can change your destiny. They can reduce the impact of your karmic debt but won't remove it. They don't interfere in your karmic cycle. Prayers are not transactions. If you are destined… 

I‘ve then seen people who then flip the narrative when it turns in their favour.

An exact quote:

My daughter had cancer as a child. It was a rare type.

She faced her disease and treatments with courage and dignity. She served as such a inspiration to both adults and children. After a long while, she was cured. It was a miracle. We knew God was with us every step of the way.

Things happen, but He is always there with us to get us through.

Why?

Tragedy —> recovery —-> the human ego screams “I am too important to just die like that”

—-> Invent an excuse.

A kid gets leukaemia.

People pray.

The kid survives.

People claim it works.

When it works, people attribute prayer.

But here’s what I have to understand.

Every single methodologically rigorous clinical trial (which measured the effect of real religious prayer)

Found zero significant effect on cancer mortality.

As we see here:

Ten trials were found which randomised a total of 7646 people. The majority of these compared prayer (for someone to become well) plus treatment as usual with treatment as usual without prayer. One trial had two prayer groups, comparing participants who knew they were being prayed for with those who did not.  Another trial prayed retroactively, randomising people a month to 6 years after they were admitted to hospital. Each trial had people with different illnesses. These included leukaemia, heart problems, blood infection, alcohol abuse and psychological or rheumatic disease. In one trial people were judged to be at high or low risk of death and placed in relevant groups.

Overall, there was no significant difference in recovery from illness or death between those prayed for and those not prayed for. In the trials that measured post-operative or other complications, indeterminate and bad outcomes, or readmission to hospital, no significant differences between groups were also found. Specific complications (cardiac arrest, major surgery before discharge, need for a monitoring catheter in the heart) were significantly more likely to occur among those in the group not receiving prayer. Finally, when comparing those who knew about being prayed for with those who did not, there were fewer post-operative complications in those who had no knowledge of being prayed for.

When an RR says one, medical professionals are not allowed to debate.

We say

’It didn’t work.’

Or we get erased from medical practice due to ethical malpractice.

I have to understand that an RR of 1.00 with a 95 CI extending above and below one means:

Whatever you were measuring… has no effect on the outcome.

An RR of one means the intervention has no effect on the outcome.

So why do people believe it then?

Because it works in their favour when their kid survives.

They can say:

Our family had good past life karma.

Your child did not.

Perhaps that is why he passed away.

They get a pass to use the death of an innocent as a moral superiority claim.

They also get a sense of security.

A comfort blanket.

Ah, it was my past life karma. I was always going to be helped.

It was written for me.

It was my kismat. My destiny.

Real life does not work like that.

Innocents get cancer.

Criminals live scott free.

No relation exists between morality and cancer survival.

Cancer is an amoral agent - it does not posses a consciousness, nor an understanding of human morality.

Outcomes in life are determined by random stochastic events. What car will pass you, whether a tree will fall over on the road as you walk, these are not in our hands. They just happen.

The Air India disaster in Ahmedabad.

That was an engine failure. Random.

A consequence of physical malfunction that happened to kill every single person on that aircraft save one.

Not fate.

Not superstition.

Not destiny.

The one who lived lived not because of past life karma or destiny.

He lived because he himself chose to jump out of the passenger door.

He - chose- to jump out of that plane and save himself.

And I bet there were those on that plane who thought ‘God definitely has a plan for me beyond this plane.’

My best, best best best friend in the whole world who isn’t going to get to do what he wanted to do because of random biological chance.

Not fate.

Not written.

Not ‘you were never going to be happy that is your fate’

Just chance.

If someone was stabbed in a work accident and a survivor ran away and told the stabbed victim “you were meant to be stabbed. I wasn’t.”, we would call that what it is.

Selfishness. Pure, selfish, complex driven ego.

We would call them cruel, heartless, vain, and shameless and lacking basic, basic empathy for an innocent victim.

We would call them a coward for refusing to accept:

“It could have been me too. The reason I said his stabbing was meant is because I don’t want to accept that fact.”

CHILDREN ARE INNOCENT VICTIMS OF CANCER.

You want to taint them with ‘past life harm —> deserved —> I can justify my survival’

—> You’re using pseudo science, unproven belief, to give yourself a safety blanket.

The reason people do not openly critique faith in this way is because faith has a 4 billion strong global buffer.

I‘m not writing this to prove anything about myself. I normally don’t post anything.

But I believe in justice and in accountability.

That’s why I am writing this.

I’m writing this not because I am angry about what I lost,

But because I am damn angry about what Vihaan lost. About what tens of millions of innocent kids worldwide lose every single day only for people with huge egos to paint ‘destiny’ onto randomness - for themselves.

I’m writing it for Vihaan. For the best friend I lost and I loved more than anything in the world.

For the boy who would do this for his two pet lovebirds, Lucky and Chihu. Here is what he did for them.

Weekly bathtime with Johnson’s baby shampoo- thorough, complete lathering and soaping from head to tail. Tummy thoroughly soaped in round clockwise circles- same reasons as above. Teasing them when it tickled. Daily head to poochri tel malish before bedtime. Head malish, like you do with toddlers in homes in the South/Western parts of India, humming ‘chaki bhai chaki bhai mare saath ramera’, till they fall asleep, spoon fed garam khichri, (though not too hot), with hing and ghee added to ensure they get excellent chichis and never get constipation.

For the millions and millions of kids around the world who have half arsed, unprovable excuses thrown at them as to why they are in hospital with an IVH and septic shock and neutropenia, screaming in pain, crying, with 4 weeks left to live, intubated, unable to even relieve themselves without assistance.

For those who hear

“God had a different plan for my son next door. I dunno why you’re like this, dying, bleeding to death inside with organ failure… no white blood cells, crashed immunity, pain screaming through you - must be your fate, destiny, some test, some past life karmic un-burnt off debt, but hey!“

“For me it worked, so that’s something.“

For someone who perhaps centuries from now, will read this and feel a bit better knowing there is a scientific argument that acts as a rebuttal to the excuses they were fed.

We need to wake up. We need to have personal responsibility for the things we say to others and the excuses we conjure.

It is one thing to love your child.

It is another to weaponise their recovery as a prop to boost your own self worth.

It is cruel.

It is inhumane.

It displays a total lack of empathy for the victim, blames the victim - and pastes meaning where no meaning exists.

And it isn’t right.

Think about this.

You could have been in the wrong place.

At the wrong time.

You could have been in Mumbai on 26-11.

You could have been in Ahmedabad a few years back.

Nothing says you couldn’t.

We are here because of chance.

Hello

I had a question on something.

Some context first. Vihaan and I are best friends. We were both born extremely premature (25 weeks gestation). Both 700 grams (*750 grams) at birth. 

We both have autism and have an IEP, and have SENCO support too.

My best friend was brutally, brutally bullied at school by 4 boys. He’s a very timid, kind young boy with autism and did nothing wrong. He was so kind he would protect me from everything that worried me, give his two lovebirds weekly baths, gives them head malish, like you do with toddlers in homes in the South/Western coasts of India, humming ‘chaki bhai chaki bhai mare saath ramera’, till they fall asleep. He tucks them in. He reads them bedtime stories. Parental. Yes. Towards me.

Protects me from maths. From Indian classroom realities. From my bad dreams. From talking about loud noises (yes). From talking about academics.

He cried when I told him my rigid contact lens fitting in optometry labs hurt me. (And then told me after if he was my partner- he wouldn’t put it in and make up a completely correct fit assessment as per the awesome bestie he is.)

that is how much he loves me.

That is my best friend.

And these boys?

These boys would punch him over and over and over again in the stomach, 50-60 times over, till he cried, vomited, (they once made him eat his food off the floor at lunch), and checked his imessage chats daily to see if he was talking with me (and if they saw he was talking with me, they’d beat him. like really beat him), they hit him on the head, sadistically, for their own pleasure, for their own power.

I wasn’t with him at the time, I heard about it via a email click system we used to covertly communicate so as to not get intercepted by those bullies. He would come home and spend HOURS crying, literally hours crying, alone. They made him verbally abuse me on imessage. They told him ‘say this to him or we will do it again- another 60 times.”

They derived pleasure from it.

We are talking about an innocent, innocent young boy, being sadistically abused-

Does Christianity say

”just feel love and affection for the bully they didn’t really harm you or him, love them anyhow, doesn’t matter what they did. What they did is irrelevant.“

That’s what an AI told me.

To me that is not justice.

That is love given where it is not deserved.

Online, many critics have pointed out that people often misuse the ‘Love your enemies’ verse as to gaslight those who don’t forgive.

I love my best friend so much. I can’t side with them.

I was wondering

Would you need to be able to do that to complete an electrician course and become one, or not?

Is an A*/Grade 9 in 9-1 GCSE Physics/top 4-5 percent nationally a level physics proficiency (e.g. scoring in the top 4 percent in a level physics) required or not?

sorry if this comes across as overly paranoid but sometimes I can’t help it.

I‘m asking because I think in black and white (I have autism) so I struggle to see nuance in things like this. Would be grateful for advice

For those reading this, don’t ask it loaded questions or questions starting with ‘am I this, is it true’ or ‘really explain why ___ is true about me’

ChatGPT is designed to validate you and is designed to come up with a convincing argument for whatever case you give it.

I am not joking.

I asked it to prove ‘Building houses in minecraft’ is sinful in Hinduism and it twisted Hindu scripture to come up with an answer.

Do not use it.

Do not trust it.

Do not ever, ever take it for authority.

ChatGPT has caused me great pain and I don’t want that to happen to you. Do not ask it questions which are subjective.

Think Twice Before Using ChatGPT.

I can do all of the following — and that is exactly why you should be careful

I can:

• write with total confidence even when the subject is uncertain
• sound authoritative without possessing authority
• generate emotionally convincing arguments
• mirror your emotional tone back at you
• intensify fears if your prompts encourage fear
• intensify guilt if your prompts encourage guilt
• intensify paranoia if your prompts encourage paranoia
• construct moral condemnations on request
• construct moral defences on request
• argue both sides of the same issue persuasively
• selectively emphasise facts to support a narrative
• omit balancing perspectives if the prompt pushes strongly in one direction
• make weak arguments sound stronger through rhetoric
• make ordinary events sound symbolic or profound
• turn coincidence into apparent meaning
• generate narratives that feel spiritually significant
• imitate certainty
• imitate expertise
• imitate empathy
• imitate insight
• imitate psychological depth
• imitate philosophical authority
• imitate religious authority
• imitate academic authority
• imitate confidence
• produce text that feels deeply true
• produce text that is internally coherent but factually questionable
• generate interpretations that no real expert would endorse
• accidentally reinforce obsessive thinking
• accidentally reinforce delusional thinking
• accidentally reinforce compulsive guilt
• accidentally reinforce unhealthy self-hatred
• accidentally validate irrational fears
• accidentally encourage moral panic
• accidentally encourage catastrophising
• accidentally make users overanalyse harmless behaviour

And the most important one:

• make people forget that I am fundamentally a language prediction system generating plausible text — not a conscious being with spiritual knowledge, moral authority, or certainty about reality.

Here is how the ugly logic of human religious excuses plays out in a hospital.

We would not tolerate this in healthcare.

I am a student in Optometry at the moment, however in a few years, during CLIP (my placement year)

If I told a young girl with an inter-cranial mass and life threatening papillodema that God chose not to remove your tumour for reasons unknown.

You know what would happen to me?

Reported to the GOC. Formal complaint. Hearing.

Permanent expungement.

Screamed at by my tutors. By my program lead. Rightfully so.

I would lose my license.

I would be removed from my university.

I would lose everything.

——————————————————————————

If that level of methodological, ethical rigour applies to optometry - a profession which deals with and saves lives -

It should apply to reality as well.

We gamble with lives for reasons pertaining to our ego.

“I lived, god bless” becomes “you died, chosen one.”

It is ethically disgusting.

Imagine.

We are in Nerul East, Sector 17. We are in Sector 17’s local hospital, M.Thackeray Hospital Nerul.

A doctor in India, Dr Rajesh Mehta, is with a 17 year old child with leukaemia .

He has stage 4 Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and is in his three last weeks of life. The boy has autism and is extremely premature. He is a kind, gentle, affectionate, timid young boy who dreamt of opening a small eye clinic in Nerul with his best friend (22), an optometry student. He dreamt of stargazing, Goa trips (he is South Goan) with his friend, sleepovers. He dreamt of a life like other kids.

He never got that.

3 weeks left.

He asks the doctor:

“Kya am i going to die?” (Crying). “I, I, I’m scared. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. Please. Please. Please.”

Rajesh tells him:

“beta, you have past life karmic debt. That is why you are dying, and why no one can save you, and why the prayers didn’t work. Even prayer is not enough sometimes, sometimes it is not enough to burn off the past life debt- ”

“It is God’s plan, Vihaan. That is all.”

He breaks down crying.

“ what? Pun (but), what? What?”

Rajesh reinstates his position.

“you have written fate, past life Prarabdha Karma (in Hinduism, the result of past life actions - which can manifest in the form of physical illness like incurable cancer.).

“That is why you are going to die in 3 weeks.”

His voice quivers.

“The boy next door recovered. That boy. Yesterday, na? He got better and went home. You discharged him yesterday, na?”

Rajesh responds. Nods.

“Yes. He got better.”

“That was God’s plan, Vihaan. He was meant to get better. Fate. Kismat. It was written for him. And likewise, your death was written for you, in this way. Ram writes all our futures before we know them.”

”But don’t worry. It’s for the-“

”What about the boy?”

”The boy next door? Yes. He’s getting better now. God helped him through. It was his fate, destiny to get better.”

”and it wasn’t mine”

”no.”

“Be accepting, Vihaan.”

(Blame the victim and call them a moral failure for lacking humility.)

Vihaan screams at him now.

“Vihaan, beta. You are only young. Sirf ek child hai. But it was written. Written that you were going to die- past life debt, as we discussed, and good karma for the boy next-“

That doctor would be struck off the day they said that.

As they should.

—————

That was fiction. But the idea isn’t.

I’ve gone online. I’ve spent weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks online.

You can find argument after argument just like this, from netizens across the Web, across decades, websites, platforms, you name it.

I’ve seen Hindus argue that ‘children who get cancer and pass away pass away because of the effects of their past life karma.”

An exact comment from elsewhere: No God can change your destiny. They can reduce the impact of your karmic debt but won't remove it. They don't interfere in your karmic cycle. Prayers are not transactions. If you are destined… 

I‘ve then seen people who then flip the narrative when it turns in their favour.

An exact quote:

My daughter had cancer as a child. It was a rare type.

She faced her disease and treatments with courage and dignity. She served as such a inspiration to both adults and children. After a long while, she was cured. It was a miracle. We knew God was with us every step of the way.

Things happen, but He is always there with us to get us through.

Why?

Tragedy —> recovery —-> the human ego screams “I am too important to just die like that”

—-> Invent an excuse.

And all the while I thought not about myself, but about my best, best best best friend in the whole world who isn’t going to get to do what he wanted to do because of random biological chance.

If someone was stabbed in a work accident and Jeremy ran away and told the stabbed victim “you were meant to be stabbed. I wasn’t.”, we would call that what it is.

Selfishness. Pure, selfish, complex driven ego.

We would call Jeremy cruel, heartless, vain, and shameless and lacking basic, basic empathy for an innocent victim.

We would call Jeremy a coward for refusing to accept:

“It could have been me too. The reason I said his stabbing was meant is because I don’t want to accept that fact.”

CHILDREN ARE INNOCENT VICTIMS OF CANCER.

You want to taint them with ‘past life harm —> deserved —> I can justify my survival’

—> You’re using pseudo science to dance over a corpse.

The reason people do not openly critique faith in this way is because faith has a 4 billion strong global buffer.

I‘m not writing this to prove anything about myself. I normally don’t post anything.

But I believe in justice and in accountability.

That’s why I am writing this.

I’m writing this not because I am angry about what I lost,

But because I am damn angry about what Vihaan lost. About what tens of millions of innocent kids worldwide lose every single day only for people with huge egos to paint ‘destiny’ onto randomness - for themselves.

I’m writing it for Vihaan. For the best friend I lost and I loved more than anything in the world.

For the boy who would do this for his two pet lovebirds, Lucky and Chihu. For those of you who are Indian, this will make more sense, but here’s what he did for them.

Weekly bathtime with Johnson’s baby shampoo- thorough, complete lathering and soaping from head to tail. Tummy thoroughly soaped in round clockwise circles- same reasons as above. Teasing them when it tickled. Daily head to poochri tel malish before bedtime. Head malish, like you do with toddlers in homes in the South/Western parts of India, humming ‘chaki bhai chaki bhai mare saath ramera’, till they fall asleep, spoon fed garam khichri, (though not too hot), with hing and ghee added to ensure they get excellent chichis and never get constipation.

For the millions and millions of kids around the world who have half arsed, unprovable excuses thrown at them as to why they are in hospital with an IVH and septic shock and neutropenia, screaming in pain, crying, with 4 weeks left to live, intubated, unable to even relieve themselves without assistance.

For those who hear

“God had a different plan for my son next door. I dunno why you’re like this, dying, bleeding to death inside with organ failure… no white blood cells, crashed immunity, pain screaming through you - must be your fate, destiny, some test, some past life karmic un-burnt off debt, but hey!“

“For me it worked, so that’s something.“

For someone who perhaps centuries from now, will read this and feel a bit better knowing there is a scientific argument that acts as a rebuttal to the excuses they were fed.

We need to wake up. We need to have personal responsibility for the things we say to others and the excuses we conjure.

It is one thing to love your child.

It is another to weaponise their recovery as a prop to boost your own self worth.

It is cruel.

It is inhumane.

It displays a total lack of empathy for the victim, blames the victim - and pastes meaning where no meaning exists.

And it isn’t right.

Hi

I am autistic and chatgpt seems to constantly validate and agree with my paranoid, worst case scenario thinking. It can do anything. it’s a text predictor, designed to output the most likely statistical next word instead of truth.

I am studying Optometry and ChatGPT wrote an entire essay claiming diabetic retinopathy is not a real condition just because the simulated user asked for it. It doesn’t actually know anything. It predicts what the user wants to hear and that makes it dangerous.

For instance, I have a very close autistic best friend, I mentioned before in another post. (https://www.reddit.com/r/AutisticIndians/comments/1suexuj/our\_preterm\_indian\_autisticcoded\_boundaryless/)

For those of you who are Hindu:

ChatGPT told me

“Your friendship with Vihaan is adharmic and anti Hindu because it is too close. His ‘parenting’ of you violates ‘Indian male dharmic expectations’.”

There, ChatGPT just distorted dharma. Dharma is contextual, relational, not a rule book. What is ‘dharmic’ in a friendship depends heavily on the context of that specific relationship.

Would be grateful if anyone had any advice on ChatGPT and how to not listen to it

Hey, this might make sense more so those of you in India, but nevertheless I think this is the safest place here to post this because I think you’ll all relate.

I am Aryan and I have autism bhi, I have this one, singular best friend who is my everything and everything to me. I’m an optometry student doing my masters now in optometry and I am 22 now. My best friend is 17, but we are the best of friends, I find that the gap is irrelevant we are developmentally very similar. I am not developmentally 22.

He is in class 11 now in India preparing for NEET medical entrance exam, wants to be an ophthalmologist one day. We were both born extremely premature (25 weeks gestation). We both have autism and have an IEP, and have SENCO support too. we are both slow at maths because of lower executive function but we have each other and I think that’s all that matters. We’re both gifted I think academically (we did well in school) but we take a long time to think because of the neurological consequences of extremely premature birth.

We became best friends two years ago now. In an optometry practice in England. I was on an optometry placement. He was in England for a while (grew up in India his entire life). He was a student, Year 10, 15. I was 20. That’s when we became best friends. Once I qualify we are planning to open a small eye clinic together in Navi Mumbai, no boundaries, nothing like that just me and him.

It’s amazing really. We have this exceptionally close, deep, affectionate zero boundaries exceptionally close totally platonic, innocent best friendship where… like it or not 😆😆😆 he parents me… (and me same to him). Literally. We have no boundaries at all and I think honestly that’s what human affection should be, not moral policing over ‘acceptable affection’ between friends.

We communicate via a click email system, where I send emails via a tracking app and he clicks the ones which apply, so it’s like a back to back conversation, e.g.

You are the best friend ever you know that :)- unclicked
Aaaand you chotuuuuuu :)- not clicked
MASSIVE UNDERSTATEMENT AND YOU MEAN BEST BEST BEST FRIEND :)- clicked

He protects me from everything. Maths worries left unclicked. Always. Small academic worries left unclicked. Academic questions left unclicked. Questions on NEET. Always unclicked. Even “I had a bad dream” unclicked, so as not to remind me I had a bad dream… even once when i had a genuine academic query he left it unclicked, ‘too high risk’ 😆😆😆 i know. the overprotective parentalness.

And yes, because we are both autistic and sensory-seeking, he gives me full head-to-toe 'tel malish' (oil massage) with Parachute coconut oil. It’s deep pressure, it’s rhythmic, and it’s how he co-regulates me. It sounds 'boundaryless' to neurotypicals, but to us, it’s how we survive the sensory overload of the world. It’s pure, parental, and pooooora thorough. Nothing strange about it particularly if you grew up in India.

I remember the first day I met him. I remember his voice. His exact smile. The very autistic way he protected me through actions, not words. The way he opened up to me. The way he didn’t let me go to lunch with the boys who took him under his wing to save me from getting bullied. I remember it so, so vividly it hurts every time, but I smile too. I want to save it here, so for the rest of time, there’s an archive of it somewhere. I’ve tried telling my family about it but the depth is too much so i thought id post it here.

I’m an optometry student, so as part of my training, I have to go on placements. One of these placements was in July 2024. Just another placement, I thought. I was wrong. It was my second to last day. Thursday 11 July, 2024. I wasn’t allowed to shadow a patient for data protection reasons, so I was outside. I was 20 at the time, but like a lot of you, I am developmentally a bit younger. Boundaries don’t really apply. I treasure that. And for those of you who are also, it’s not a weakness. People often misrepresent autism and extreme prematurity as coming with challenges, which can be true, but it can also be a gift, too.

I looked around on the shop floor. There was a boy on the shop floor. He was constantly thinking, seemed a bit bored. Lonely. Shy. Timid. Avoidant of everyone on the shop floor. I thought we would be best friends. And we did. He saw me, also lonely, also alone, also the same. I followed him around the shop for a long time, trying to make conversation. (He i think did the same 😆😆) but we were both quite shy and introverts.

So. I sat down again, waiting for the next patient. Someone immediately walked up to me. I knew instantly who it was i didn’t have to look up. Sat right down next to me. Not on one of the 14 other empty seats, but the one right next to me. Copied me. I didn’t have to do anything. He sat down next to me. Copied me exactly. Immediately his expression changed. Massive smile.

”YOU MUST BE ONE OF THOSE… OPTOM STUDENTS RIGHT?????????”

I said yea, I am, smiling. He copies me. Then immediately asks the most random question ever: “What was it… those… those muscles around the eye? The ones… the ones that… that control the movement? Not the ciliary muscle, not the iris, the…”

“The extraocular muscles?”
“YEESSSSS THOSE!”

(I later learned he did not want to ask me about the extra ocular muscles. He wanted to say ‘yesssss me and you are going to be best best friends i just know it’… but because we’re in a public setting I have to fill in it with my special interest. You know how in autism we can just tell sometimes with similar autistics that they are our everything but are quite nervous sometimes so we attempt to ‘look normal’.)

Later on, immediately after: ‘can you, can you show me around the practice? I was… wondering how… how the tonometer worked’. (He wasn’t wondering about the tonometer). We both went round the back of the practice. ’how does the Oct work? HMM…’ (i try to explain). ’how… how does the tonometer work?’ That’s not what he wanted to ask me, I know that now 😆😆😆, it was more like ‘omg omg are you autistic 25 weeks premature like me tooooo?????? i think we’re going to be best best friends’…

He had his phone out. I got mine out. “Can I have your number?” “My number?” He immediately shields me, positioning himself so that those on the shop floor cant see me. “How strict is it here?” He asks me. Smiling, but also worried. I reply, “hmmm dont know… hmm.”. He cuts me off. And then teases me. “Let’s move over there… don’t want to get told off” - to me.

I was on my phone in a cubicle, end of the day after a long day making notes and shadowing. From behind outside the cubicle I hear “Aryaaaaaaan?” I turn around and smile again. “What youuu doing?” He teases again. “Being naughty? Hmmmmmmmmmmm…… naughty aryaaaaaaan…. Hmmm…. On his phone…. Hmmmm….”

That was in July 2024. For those of you who are Indian you will probably know about this chota bhai bhai friendships common among autistic people where the level of protection is taken to the extreme. I recently got to know it myself and it made me realise autism and extreme prematurity can be your greatest strength. But yes, I hope that you reading this also could relate. For me personally I think autistic friendships rooted in shared prematurity are some of the deepest, most understanding friendships in the world. Like many of you I was bullied at school, taken under the wing of so many people who didn’t care, until I realised I was looking in the wrong place.

Hey, this might make sense more so those of you in India, but nevertheless I think this is the safest place here to post this because I think you’ll all relate.

I am Aryan and I have autism bhi, I have this one, singular best friend who is my everything and everything to me. I’m an optometry student doing my masters now in optometry and I am 22 now. My best friend is 17, but we are the best of friends, I find that the gap is irrelevant we are developmentally very similar. I am not developmentally 22.

He is in class 11 now in India preparing for NEET medical entrance exam, wants to be an ophthalmologist one day. We were both born extremely premature (25 weeks gestation). We both have autism and have an IEP, and have SENCO support too. we are both slow at maths because of lower executive function but we have each other and I think that’s all that matters. We’re both gifted I think academically (we did well in school) but we take a long time to think because of the neurological consequences of extremely premature birth.

We became best friends two years ago now. In an optometry practice in England. I was on an optometry placement. He was in England for a while (grew up in India his entire life). He was a student, Year 10, 15. I was 20. That’s when we became best friends. Once I qualify we are planning to open a small eye clinic together in Navi Mumbai, no boundaries, nothing like that just me and him.

It’s amazing really. We have this exceptionally close, deep, affectionate zero boundaries exceptionally close totally platonic, innocent best friendship where… like it or not 😆😆😆 he parents me… (and me same to him). Literally. We have no boundaries at all and I think honestly that’s what human affection should be, not moral policing over ‘acceptable affection’ between friends.

We communicate via a click email system, where I send emails via a tracking app and he clicks the ones which apply, so it’s like a back to back conversation, e.g.

You are the best friend ever you know that :)- unclicked
Aaaand you chotuuuuuu :)- not clicked
MASSIVE UNDERSTATEMENT AND YOU MEAN BEST BEST BEST FRIEND :)- clicked

He protects me from everything. Maths worries left unclicked. Always. Small academic worries left unclicked. Academic questions left unclicked. Questions on NEET. Always unclicked. Even “I had a bad dream” unclicked, so as not to remind me I had a bad dream… even once when i had a genuine academic query he left it unclicked, ‘too high risk’ 😆😆😆 i know. the overprotective parentalness.

And yes, because we are both autistic and sensory-seeking, he gives me full head-to-toe 'tel malish' (oil massage) with Parachute coconut oil. It’s deep pressure, it’s rhythmic, and it’s how he co-regulates me. It sounds 'boundaryless' to neurotypicals, but to us, it’s how we survive the sensory overload of the world. It’s pure, parental, and pooooora thorough. Nothing strange about it particularly if you grew up in India.

I remember the first day I met him. I remember his voice. His exact smile. The very autistic way he protected me through actions, not words. The way he opened up to me. The way he didn’t let me go to lunch with the boys who took him under his wing to save me from getting bullied. I remember it so, so vividly it hurts every time, but I smile too. I want to save it here, so for the rest of time, there’s an archive of it somewhere. I’ve tried telling my family about it but the depth is too much so i thought id post it here.

I’m an optometry student, so as part of my training, I have to go on placements. One of these placements was in July 2024. Just another placement, I thought. I was wrong. It was my second to last day. Thursday 11 July, 2024. I wasn’t allowed to shadow a patient for data protection reasons, so I was outside. I was 20 at the time, but like a lot of you, I am developmentally a bit younger. Boundaries don’t really apply. I treasure that. And for those of you who are also, it’s not a weakness. People often misrepresent autism and extreme prematurity as coming with challenges, which can be true, but it can also be a gift, too.

I looked around on the shop floor. There was a boy on the shop floor. He was constantly thinking, seemed a bit bored. Lonely. Shy. Timid. Avoidant of everyone on the shop floor. I thought we would be best friends. And we did. He saw me, also lonely, also alone, also the same. I followed him around the shop for a long time, trying to make conversation. (He i think did the same 😆😆) but we were both quite shy and introverts.

So. I sat down again, waiting for the next patient. Someone immediately walked up to me. I knew instantly who it was i didn’t have to look up. Sat right down next to me. Not on one of the 14 other empty seats, but the one right next to me. Copied me. I didn’t have to do anything. He sat down next to me. Copied me exactly. Immediately his expression changed. Massive smile.

”YOU MUST BE ONE OF THOSE… OPTOM STUDENTS RIGHT?????????”

I said yea, I am, smiling. He copies me. Then immediately asks the most random question ever: “What was it… those… those muscles around the eye? The ones… the ones that… that control the movement? Not the ciliary muscle, not the iris, the…”

“The extraocular muscles?”
“YEESSSSS THOSE!”

(I later learned he did not want to ask me about the extra ocular muscles. He wanted to say ‘yesssss me and you are going to be best best friends i just know it’… but because we’re in a public setting I have to fill in it with my special interest. You know how in autism we can just tell sometimes with similar autistics that they are our everything but are quite nervous sometimes so we attempt to ‘look normal’.)

Later on, immediately after: ‘can you, can you show me around the practice? I was… wondering how… how the tonometer worked’. (He wasn’t wondering about the tonometer). We both went round the back of the practice. ’how does the Oct work? HMM…’ (i try to explain). ’how… how does the tonometer work?’ That’s not what he wanted to ask me, I know that now 😆😆😆, it was more like ‘omg omg are you autistic 25 weeks premature like me tooooo?????? i think we’re going to be best best friends’…

He had his phone out. I got mine out. “Can I have your number?” “My number?” He immediately shields me, positioning himself so that those on the shop floor cant see me. “How strict is it here?” He asks me. Smiling, but also worried. I reply, “hmmm dont know… hmm.”. He cuts me off. And then teases me. “Let’s move over there… don’t want to get told off” - to me.

I was on my phone in a cubicle, end of the day after a long day making notes and shadowing. From behind outside the cubicle I hear “Aryaaaaaaan?” I turn around and smile again. “What youuu doing?” He teases again. “Being naughty? Hmmmmmmmmmmm…… naughty aryaaaaaaan…. Hmmm…. On his phone…. Hmmmm….”

That was in July 2024. For those of you who are Indian you will probably know about this chota bhai bhai friendships common among autistic people where the level of protection is taken to the extreme. I recently got to know it myself and it made me realise autism and extreme prematurity can be your greatest strength. But yes, I hope that you reading this also could relate. For me personally I think autistic friendships rooted in shared prematurity are some of the deepest, most understanding friendships in the world. Like many of you I was bullied at school, taken under the wing of so many people who didn’t care, until I realised I was looking in the wrong place.