The Bible, in essence, articulated the principle millennia ago when in Hebrews 3:4 it says that “every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.” A house must have a cause-namely, a builder. THE LAW OF CAUSALITY-A PROBLEM FOR ATHEISTSĬreationists have absolutely no problem with the truth articulated by this God-ordained law from antiquity. Its ramifications have been argued for years, but after the dust settles, the Law of Cause and Effect still stands unscathed, having weathered the trials thrust upon it for thousands of years. Indeed, the Law of Cause and Effect is not, and cannot rationally be, denied-except when necessary in order to prop up a deficient worldview.
“the principle that everything has a cause” (“Causality,” 2008). “the principle that nothing can happen without being caused” (“Causality,” 2009). Today’s dictionaries define “causality” as: Even today, when scientific exploration has brought us to unprecedented heights of knowledge, the age old Law of Causality cannot be denied. In The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Richard Taylor wrote, “Nevertheless, it is hardly disputable that the idea of causation is not only indispensable in the common affairs of life but in all applied sciences as well” (1967, p. The truth of causality is so substantiated that it is taken for granted in scientific investigation.Ī few decades later, the Law of Cause and Effect still had not been repealed. In every scientific investigation this truth is assumed (1934, p. If we did not believe the truth of causation, namely, everything which has a beginning has a cause, and that in the same circumstances the same things invariably happen, all the sciences would at once crumble to dust. Stace, professor of philosophy at Princeton University, in A Critical History of Greek Philosophy, wrote:Įvery student of logic knows that this is the ultimate canon of the sciences, the foundation of them all. Fast forwarding another 350 years, our understanding of the world still did not cause the law to be discredited. All changes take place according to the law of the connection of Cause and Effect” (Kant, 1781). In 1781, the renowned philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote concerning the Principle of Causality in his Critique of Pure Reason that “everything that happens presupposes a previous condition, which it follows with absolute certainty, in conformity with a rule…. Moving forward two millennia in no way changed the established fact pressed by the Law of Cause and Effect. In 350 B.C., Aristotle contributed more to the causality discussion by stipulating that causes can be “spoken of in four senses”: material, formal, efficient, and final (Aristotle, 2009, 1). In Phaedo, written by Plato in 360 B.C., an “investigation of nature” is spoken of concerning causality, wherein “the causes of everything, why each thing comes into being and why it perishes and why it exists” are discussed (Plato, 1966, 1:96a-b, emp. The Law of Cause and Effect, or Law/Principle of Causality, has been investigated and recognized for millennia. Perhaps the Law of Cause and Effect seems intuitive to most, but common sense is foreign to many when God is brought into the discussion. There must be an adequate antecedent or simultaneous cause for every material effect. If matter was not made and placed in the Universe, we would not exist. 
If a chair is not placed in an empty room, the room will remain chairless. Jumping up and down on the ground will not cause an earthquake. Leaning against a mountain will certainly not cause it to topple over. There must be an adequate cause for the tidal wave, like a massive, offshore, underwater earthquake (“Tsunamis,” 2000, p. The mass of a paper clip is not going to provide sufficient gravitational pull to cause a tidal wave. The Law of Cause and Effect states that every material effect must have an adequate antecedent or simultaneous cause.
0 kommentar(er)
