What exactly is the law of causality ....

.... and why do some theists say it proves the universe was designed?

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Permalink Reply by TheMostAthy on September 27, 2012 at 9:43pm

"Every effect has a cause." That's about it, summed up. Theists say the Big Bang had to have had a cause, which has to be a deity of some sort. Interestingly enough, they exempt this deity from the law of causality, claiming that the deity itself is uncaused.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Reardon on September 27, 2012 at 10:46pm

"You break it, you pay for it!"

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Permalink Reply by Molly Brown-Fuller on October 14, 2012 at 11:03am

It goes back to some really ancient and overused arguments to "prove" the existence of God. It basically argues that in the natural world, every event has a cause. If we follow each event to its previous cause it evokes an infinite regression, at which point the original arguer says: "poof!" In this argument God is the only something that doesn't need a cause, so forth ending the infinite regression. Ultimately, though it is simply a semantic argument that doesn't justify the God's supposed exemption from the logical progression of causality, and God exists only for the small-minded purpose of filling the gap of the origin mystery, which with today's science (such as the Big Bang theory) isn't nearly as much of a mystery as it once was.

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Permalink Reply by Strega on October 14, 2012 at 12:49pm

I took a mirror, one foot tall
And went into my mirrored hall
I held it up against my chest
And faced it out - to do this test
As far as any eye could see
Repeated to infinity
My endless image multiplied...
The outcome cannot be denied
Since I initiate this act
I must be God, a proven fact!

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Permalink Reply by Strega on October 15, 2012 at 7:54am

Grin - why, thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Sophie on October 15, 2012 at 10:42am

(golf clap)

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on October 15, 2012 at 5:36pm

Lady La Strega - Normally, I would just leave the word, "Yoink!" here, and expect you would know exactly what I mean, but in conversations I've had with an Australian friend, I've learned that not all nationalities are aware of some American expressions, and so, you, being English and all that, might not know that, "Yoink!" is the sound a given character on "The Simpsons" TV show makes when they've snatched something away from someone, and since I am stealing your poem, I thought it only fitting that I, in my best genuine, imitation, English accent, say, Yoink!

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Permalink Reply by Strega on October 15, 2012 at 9:45pm

I am very glad you went for the fuller explanation. Yoink sounds like the noise a nasally challenged piglet might make. I'm glad you liked the poem, please feel free to steal it. Was just a jot to highlight Molly's excellent response :)