Do you believe in cause and effect?

To take seriously the idea of cause and effect is to accept that there is sufficient cause for everything. But this is very different from the idea that people do things for a reason. Now with cause and effect, although we can never witness the cause, since we only attribute cause to an effect by constant conjunction we can at least trace the causal pathway; the hunger of the cat caused it to jump up on the worktop, the proximity of the bottle to the edge cause it to fall as the cat brushed against it, the gravitation force of the earth caused the bottle to accelerate at app 10ms-2, the height of the worktop determined the maximum velocity reached by the bottle (Assuming it didn't have time to reach its terminal velocity) the surface hardness of the floor cause the bottle to shatter. But note, we cannot tell the same story with human actions. In this sense they are not caused. We may do things for a reason but a reason is not a cause. I may say I caused him to go to the shops for me but really I mean I gave him a convincing reason to. Since humans make free choices they escape the causal chain. Now, when your hubby discovers you are cheating on him, no doubt he might do something nasty, but he will do it for a reason not because your cheating caused it. all the best urban all the best urban