Cause and Effect
A fundamental premise of scientific investigation is the concept of cause and effect. If I switch this switch then this light will light up. Science is generally concerned with going back from effect to cause. What caused the light to come on? By trying various experiments (switching this or that switch) we can ascertain the cause of an effect and, hopefully, get a better understanding of the world.
Each event causes other events that cause more events and so on. The image of a small stone dropped into a pond comes to mind. The waves ripple out further and further. The simplistic idea of a simple cause and effect is rarely the case. In the example, for the light to light we need to have electricity and a working bulb. If a stone is dropped on the bulb, breaking it, then the light will not work. Science attempts to isolate each cause and effect but in process often simplifies the issues to such an extent that theories become meaningless. This is particularly true in medicine where there are many factors at work that affect each other. This is why alternative medical practitioners often talk about ‘holistic’ medicine. Instead of isolating each symptom (the effect) and attempting to ascertain the cause, the holistic practitioner looks at the total working of the body and look at where the weaknesses and imbalances are.
If we see the world as a series of accidents – of causes and effects that causes other effects and so on – then the world is a dangerous place and is inherently out of our control. At any moment we could be subject to effects, the causes of which happened long ago. This is the idea of chaos theory; the flapping of the wings of a butterfly in Sydney can cause a tornado in the USA.
A human being, or an intelligent animal, will perform an action in order to bring about a known outcome. This is what a definition of intelligence is: the ability to predict effects and take actions in order to bring about a know outcome. On the other hand, an accident is where a cause brings about unpredictable, or undesired, outcomes. So when a tornado hits a house and by-passes another next door the assumption is that this is purely chance; the tornado has no intelligence and so can’t direct its force in one place rather than another.
The idea of cause and effect makes some assumptions. It assumes that time works in one direction only (the future can’t affect the past) and that there is no intelligence at work. Popular situation comedies (sit-coms) often have a theme where an incident early on in an episode has comical repercussions later on. The scriptwriter, of course, can control the situation. He can go back and re-write events and can create the outcome he wants. Real life, so many people assume, has no such scriptwriter.
