Certain contradictions in spiritual traditions, however, are inevitable and irreducible. The mystics of all traditions have emphasized that the ultimate spiritual knowledge can not be represented in a logically consistent conceptual system. Short of this ultimate knowledge, however, there is the possibility of consistent conceptual representation of spiritual laws or principles. For example, in analogy to the physical law that to every action is an equal and opposite reaction, one may formulate a spiritual law of karma that as ye sow, so shall ye reap. A spiritual law, like a law of physics, is a testable proposition that states a certain relationship between properties or states.
Laws are generally invariant to the time, place, and person conducting the verification.
Laws, however, are relative and not absolute. Recognizing the relative nature of laws often resolves apparent contradictions between them. For example, an important factor contributing to the contingent nature of a scientific law is its limit of applicability. Just as Newton's laws of motion are not valid on the quantum scale or at relativistic speeds, so the law of karma is valid only in a limited domain. Thus, even though the more general laws of relativity and quantum mechanics contradict the laws of classical physics in certain cases, they nevertheless agree in a certain limited domain.