The trouble is that we keep bouncing around the term “causality”. But you first have to establish that it exists. Not everyone believes in it. Or if they believe in God, they might view the deity, as Deism does. He starts up the universe and let’s it continue - without intervention. Let’s survey some forum talks.
Quora - Does causality exist?
Science Philosophy Chat Forums - Does causality exist?
Suppose Eusebius read a paper on his position, at the next Evangelical conference on Universalism. And three disquingished scientists were at the conference. After a few drinks, they went to hear his talk - just for fun. Afterwards, each approached and said this:
Jerry A. Coyne is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, at The University of Chicago. He liked the talk and shared his interest in brain research. He said that the illusion of free will, is caused by neural transmitters in the brain. And he presents him with a layman’s article from USA Today article at Column: Why you don’t really have free will. To illustate this, see Do we have Free Will :
Professor Rupus T Firefly from Standard, says that while causality is operating in this world, it’s not at the level of Quantum physics. The Uncertainty principle and Quantum indeterminacy. really determines all reality. And he can show experiments to correlate it to free will. See the **Scientific American **article The Quantum Physics of Free Will. Here are 4 points that will be addressed, in the article:
Professor Elmer J Fudd from Oxford, is a neo-behaviorist. He agrees with the paper. But says people just need the right reinforcement, from stimulus-response research in psychology, in order to make the proper choices. He gives him a copy of Walden II by B.F. Skinner. Let’s watch his assistant, Dr. Sheldon Cooper, demonstrate this.
So how would Eusebius respond, to these 3 distinguished professors? What is presented in the 3 previous scientific examples are facts. They are current scientific positions that many scientists hold. They would say that:
Free will illusion is caused by neural brain transmitters, according to current brain research
At the level of Quantum physics, the Uncertainty principle and Quantum indeterminacy, would undermine or neutralize the principle of causality.
You can get people to respond via operand conditioning or behavior modification
Or let’s take the case of spiritual healing. A person is told by the medical specialists and medical tests, that their disease is incurable. But they go to some spiritual healing modality - perhaps:
The Catholic site Lourdes
A Charismatic healer
An Indigenous Native American ceremony
A Christian Science practitioner
A meeting of the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends
Etc.
In keeping with what I know, they might have:
No healing
A partial healing
A complete healing
So how would Eusebius respond? I have spend a lifetime investigating spiritual healing. And I have observed all that I have described. These are not “make-believe scenarios”.
This cartoon illustrates correlation variables. Eusebius believes everything is a causality variable. But that raises many questions:
How many causality variables are there, that influence a given decision?
What statistical percentage does each one represent (something that experiments in psychology, social psychology, etc., can give you)?
How do you know each person will respond to a given causality variable, in the same way? And if not, how do you explain the difference?
How do you know something you think is a causality variable, is not a correlation variable?
Etc.
Or I could say that since I am subject to causality and the will of God, it is my destiny to embrace Holy Fool theology and P-Zombie philosophy. So no one here, can fault me for that.