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104. What Caused the Effect We Live In?

Recall the Law of Causality (the Law of Cause and Effect)?  We note that when event “B” follow event “A”, we naturally wonder if event “A” caused event “B” because we are human.  An example of this is the event of rain (“A”) followed by the event (“B”) of wet grass.  If we observe this with our senses each time and understand the reasons “B” follows “A” then we make the conclusion that “B” is the effect of “A”

Causes and Effects are all around us.  Unfortunately we do not recognize the relationship because of our senses or rational.   Fortunately we have tools to help us with our senses and logic to help us with our reason.  Let me give you examples of each.

Senses example: But for the invention of the microscope, doctors during the Civil War could not even imagine the cause of infection or sickness.

Playing Pool

Logic example: You are sitting at the bowling alley (or sports bar) and you hear this loud bag.  You turn around quickly and see all of these balls on a table busting loose going every direction.  What do you think caused the effect that you heard and saw?  Your reasoning would search for causes.  You would try to come up with a logical cause.

I am confident you would NOT think that “nothing” caused all of the balls to spin around on the pool table.  I am equally confident that you would not think that this effect happened by “chance”.  But you are on the right track.  You are asking what “caused” the “effect”.

Would you think that one of the persons near the pool table caused the effect? Is it someone with a stick or without a stick?   Was it the fan above the pool table blowing down on the table?  Was it the soft drink machine next to the pool table?  Was it the pool table that jumped up and launched the ball?  Was it all of the balls deciding to move all at the same time?  Was it the earth’s magnetic field that pulsated?   Was it a mouse that jumped up on the pool table and hit them without anyone noticing?  Can you think of some other things that may have caused the effect?

The challenge is knowing if there is a relationship between the “effect” that you see and the “cause” that caused it.  This is “causal thinking”. Causal thinking is not just about the game of pool.  It is at the heart of scientific inquiry. The fact is that causal thinking is at the heart of everything we do from medical diagnosis to automobile diagnosis. We want a proper diagnosis of our body or car and then a proper remedy.

Have you ever seen the TV show CSI?  What is CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) about?  Isn’t it about using science and investigation to find the cause (who did it) of the effect (the murdered victim).   The fact is that causal thinking is at the heart of natural science. Science is all about observing effects and attempting to isolate causes.

If you see either the pool table ball or the CSI story, we know that we want to know, “Who done it?”  Is you answer going to be “I don’t know.” or “Nothing cause it.”?

How is this related to Is Evolution A Theory?  Simple and in the pool table example, who or what had the power and motivation to start the balls moving?  Or in the CSI example, who or what had the power and motivation to kill the victim and leave them there?

Again, would you say that nothing hit the pool ball?  They just jumped into motion? Or would you be suspicious of one of the people with a stick?  It is one thing to say that “nothing” caused the cue ball to move into motion; it is another thing to say that there are forces moving that I cannot or did not see.

Again, would you say that “nothing” caused that victim to lay there on the floor and create a hole in his head?  Or would you be suspicious of someone performing this dastardly deed?  Do you see the difference between “I don’t know” and “nothing is causing”? “I don’t know” claims a lack of knowledge. “Nothing caused it” claims total knowledge.

False Claims Sign

So now the question that we started with as the header, “what caused the effect we live in?”  What caused the planets to move around?

Go deeper than that planet motion (or pool ball motion) question!  What caused the planets to come into existence to begin with?

Dig deeper than that planet motion (or CSI victim) question!  What caused life to come into existence anyway?

In both questions above, we have to ask ourselves some questions that we may not like the answers.  Maybe the answers don’t fit our religion, philosophy, or thinking.  What had the power and motivation to start the effect of everything we see around us.  It can all be traced back to the “first cause” .  Who or what caused the universe into existence and then into motion and then into life forms?

What is your answer?  If your answer is something like, I don’t know or God caused it, then you are on the right track realizing that there is a cause to the effect.  If your answer is something like, nothing caused it or it just happened from chance, then you are unfamiliar with the Law of Causality (Law of Cause and Effect).

Theory of Evolution is false because it is irrational with its claim 1) that “nothing” caused this universe with all of its planets and life to come in to existence, 2) it exploded into existence from nothing, 3) chance caused it all to happen or 4) it happened by way of ___you fill in the blank___ .  These are not rational scientific answers or scientific explanations.

Science is not about claiming that “nothing” cause “something” like the universe.  Science is not about claiming that an explosion of some kind caused the universe.  Science is not about claiming mathematical probability like change caused the universe.  They make a claim that has no evidence or by definition cannot happen.

The theory of evolution is false because it is irrational with all of it claims about creation, stars, chemicals, and ultimately its claim that a complex living cell with its DNA came out of a soup of chemicals.

What caused the effect we live in?  Is Evolution a Theory?