Causality vs Reality

Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event, where the second event is a consequence of the first. Causality thus implies that one thing leads to another, as if there were an intrinsic purpose, reason or motivation. Many religions embrace causality as a narrative, striving to find causes for results, explanations for mysteries, speedy answers to complex questions. The main instigator of causality is a being known as a god or supernatural force. Causality, alas, is an illusion. In the same way that our eyes can be tricked by our penchant for pattern recognition, our minds can be fooled into assigning purpose for things without. These false patterns put our perspective at odds with reality. Reality, we shall see, requires more than just a comforting harmony to be verified.

To the true believer of causality, reality becomes a metaphor for a living, hidden fantasy, but reality is real, regardless of what you believe, observe, or want out of it. Figuring out reality is like filling out a giant crossword puzzle. The truths we know indicate the rest of the answers through the ways they intersect. Place a word in a horizontal row and you’ve set the requirements for every column that crosses it. And so, the truths of the universe combine into a lattice of implied and supported laws; the existence of one making all the others stronger. These truths may fit together nicely, but they do not imply causality.

Beyond the strengths of the information that we have is the actual message that it conveys. The story of every thing that we hold valuable can be deconstructed to such a degree that naught but physics and chaos can explain the “whys” of its existence. A living organism is nothing but cells. Individual cells are just bags of chemicals; molecules with complex structures and activities. The atoms that make up the molecules are made up of still smaller parts, which are made of tinier quantum particles. Those quantum particles are subject to their own laws and physics, and the world gets smaller still. Every question posed along the way (“How did we evolve?” “How did life originate?”) can be answered through empirical knowledge, but nowhere written in our neutrinos is a directive to be or do anything more than... exist. Or not.

But that’s just the honest view of reality. That’s how it is despite our best efforts to give it a kinder face. Though it all makes sense without adding another layer of abstraction, we seem bent on packing more flavor into an already potent broth.

The main culprits of the needless obfuscation of reality are religion and spirituality. Mankind can hardly be faulted for their existence; we are biologically inclined to such self-centered beliefs. We remain doggedly attached to them in the face of much more plausible evidence. Again, there are good reasons for that, but none as good as reality itself. The stark conclusion is that one must either make peace with their reality, or consciously choose the path of self-deception. Once confronted with the truth, the only way to escape its grasp is to deny it and construct one’s life in a way that rarely encounters opposition.

While saying these things, I constantly remind myself that the same words could easily come from my philosophical opponent: he of causality and intrinsic purpose. The difference is the essence of the argument. Reality appeals to empiricism. Causality appeals to desire. Then, when given the option to deny either argument, an individual is confronted with fear in the case of causality, facts in the case of reality. Upon hearing my views, a dear friend of mine exclaims, “How depressing!” This is exactly my point. Reality doesn’t care if you find it depressing or not. It just is.

Let’s get the main challenge out of the way: how can one claim to know enough about the world that they can say there is no causality? This question is dishonest. A more realistic way to look at it is this: what natural truth gave you the idea that there was a purpose to any of this? Why didn’t you investigate further? I don’t claim to know everything, or that what I know is 100% correct, but what I do know does a better job of explaining, without any cognitive dissonance, how the world works, than the concept of causality. The world is known, by many a cynic, to work in a completely random and chaotic fashion despite the patterns we seek within it. Furthermore, we would not consider the implication of causality if someone hadn’t thought it up to begin with.