Atheists always purport to believe in a "rational" universe, yet they frequently take the irrational, very unscientific attitude of dismissing outright the possible existence of any force of the universe that they believe might be identified with religion or with the broadly defined rubric of "mysticism." And this despite the fact that the entire history of science acknowledges forces (e.g., infra-red radiation) and entities (e.g., microorganisms) that for very long periods in human history we lacked the technology to detect or prove the existence of. They assume that what technology as of the early 21st century can detect and quantify in a laboratory is the zenith of what science will ever possibly be able to identify, despite new discoveries occurring all the time, including new species of animals that remained hidden from human eyes up until this point.

Accordingly, they ignore the fact that karma is simply a metaphysical term that matches with the principle of cause and effect as described by physics, but they denounce it as "mumbo jumbo" for what largely amounts to semantic and political reasons, and insist that science should never attempt to investigate the increasingly large connections made in the realm of quantum physics--the crux of physical science for about a century now--and unseen forces of the universe largely described by so-called 'mystics' in the past (and present), with the main difference being the language used to describe the relevant phenomena. This is why quantum physics, despite its huge importance to the framework of science (you know, the system of methodology that atheists claim to support), is the only science that atheists regularly denounce as "mumbo jumbo." Whenever they speak of supporting "science," they invariably talk about evolution, but tend to sort of consciously steer clear of mentioning physics. And they do these things for what amounts to political reasons based on hatred of anything that might possibly be connected to religion, which is in turn based on the belief that religion in and of itself causes discord in society--and ignoring the fact that while this is largely true when it comes to organized religion, atheistic societies created no more peaceful or "rational" societies than religious-based systems if the overall material conditions in both nations were identical. Religion simply adapts to the prevailing economic and political environment around it, and largely exists because of humanity's inherent need to answer fundamental questions of the universe, with these particular tenets being highly politicized due to their connection in the human mind with religion. If science refuses to put research into answering these questions, then people will continue to turn to religion and philosophy to answer them, and the dream atheists have of a world without religion or spirituality of any kind will not occur.

Atheists tend to abuse the word "rational" much as media pundits abuse the word "pedophile," totalitarians and social democrats have abused the word "socialism," and victimologists have abused the word "feminism."