@sullyfish6,
I get what you are saying but what is the difference between being charitable and doing something nice so as to not incur bad karma? I think doing good things and making morally right decisions just to avoid bad karma is actually selfish. Being charitable to help people and making right decisions because of a moral code or because that is who you are is more noble. I mean to be honest I am an agnostic. I believe that there is no gatekeeper, record keeper up there. You are responsible to yourself and for your own actions. The only real mythical/ethical/religious belief one should have is in honesty not god or some 8 fold path. The parts of Buddhism that clarify that honesty is the most important thing in the entire religion are worthy of respect but most of Buddhism is focused on accepting how miserable existence is and trying to follow a path to get out of it as quickly as possible. Makes sense considering how poor life was back in the time of Buddha but today it hardly makes sense. Life is either good or getting better for the vast majority of the people in the world. (Asians, Europeans, Australians, North Americans and even some African countries/hence vast majority), I can't honestly accept that life is full of misery and that we are caught in a endless, pointless cycle of rebirth. Life is wonderful, you can experience things, interact with people, build things, be satisfied, experience love. I mean what's wrong with life? Especially for westerners!