Is there such a thing as a random event or does everything have a cause?

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   CWanamakerposted 13 years ago

   Is there such a thing as a random event or does everything have a cause?

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2. 61

   Dubuquedogtrainerposted 13 years ago

   Very interesting question. Coming from a background in statistics, I have thought about the idea of randomness quite a bit. Is it a man-made concept? Something interesting to ponder.
   
   I guess my first reaction to this question is that I believe in a single, omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient God so I would say nothing is random. However, who's to say that God didn't design some things to be random? I'm not sure and will have to think about this.
   
   Is mutation random, for example? Was mutation in the original design, or is it a result of "the fall?"
   
   And if God is omniscient, then is anything truly random?
   
   As a believer, I can say that not everything has a cause, because God did not have a cause, but after that, I don't know - I suppose everything or most everything has a cause. Thanks for this thought-provoking question!

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3. 61

   FlowOfThoughtposted 13 years ago

   Well everything has a cause, however if you mean, does everything have meaning, then I think, that assuming I accepted that there was fate, or god, or any of that, then I would assume that some things have meaning, and if there was an overall plan, then certain larger events would be planned, and some smaller yet formative events, but, I don't think every little detail would be planned out. I mean, I wouldn't think that the decision on my breakfast everyday of my life had some significant meaning.

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4. 36

   edhanposted 13 years ago

   I believe in cause and effect.
   
   Every action we take will have an effect later on. So, it is what we had done before will end up with a consequence. It depends on your spiritual level of understanding as when you are in higher spiritual level, everything you do and say will result in a quicker result of response.
   
   Example that in your mind you are saying something bad about a person, the next minute you find yourself tripping down. This result as an effect of what you have done mentally.

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5. 59

   NatalieSackposted 13 years ago

   I think it depends on your perspective.  If you look for connections and causes among events, you will find them.  If, however, you are driven less by logic and more by the esoteric, you more likely to interpret events as miracles and fate.
   
   So I think a single event can be both random and causal, kind of like the famous Schrodinger's cat theory.

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   ackman1465posted 13 years ago

   In order for something to be TOTALLY random there could/must be ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that could have brought about that event....   So, I think there is NO EVENT, EVER, that can be totally random....  HOWEVER,....
   
   I think the nature of this query is really:   For every event that happens, is it possible that some (events) have such vague and detached causes that it's all but impossible to find a tie between the cause and that event?
   
   For example,  if I pay my bill at the grocery store.... the "cause" (my taking and expecting to pay for groceries) is easily identified. 
   
   IF my home is destroyed by a fire, it MIGHT be that an electrical short sparked that fire, OR an arsonist might have thrown a Molotov cocktail at my house to start that fire....  IS the former "random"... and the latter not?   
   
   Then, reviewing the former, we might find that an electrician changed or added an electrical box for me... and did so incorrectly, leaving the wire loose,.... such that an arc occurred.... and could have - predictably - been the "cause" of the fire.
   
   Was the event of the wire being loosely installed "random"??????  You MIGHT make a case for "randomness" if you learned that the electrician rolled a pair of dice before he made up every electrical connection he made.... and when the dice totally, say, 8, he made up THAT connection loosely.... and made up all other connections tightly (correctly)....
   
   Random is a very obscure concept.....

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7. 66

   Perspycaciousposted 13 years ago

   "In the designs of Providence there are no mere coincidences."  (Pope John Paul)

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8. 52

   wayne92587posted 13 years ago

   What was on the Mind of God prior to the Moment of Creation, the Creation of the Reality of First Cause, the Creation of the Universe, of the Reality of Everything?
   
   Not a DamnThing, Nothing was on the Mind of God other than the Creation, the Random Generation of the Reality of First Cause.
   
   The Reality of First Cause, having been Randomly Generated, was a Creation.
   
   Being an Original Product of the Mind of God, The Reality of First Cause although being an Effect born of a Affect, the Mind of God, was born of the Alchemically Transfiguration of a Singularity having no Relative, Numerical, material, value; the Reality of First Cause, being a mutation, a Transmutation.
   
   The Reality of First Cause being an Effect born of an Affect being the First Singularity to have, relative, Material, value, a Numerical value of One.
   
   Made manifest having Material Value, the Reality of First Cause, an Effect born of an Affect, rather than having a direct material cause, being a Transmutation, ushered in the Relativity of Time and Space, Space-Time,  the Reality of First Cause, originally being no more that an product of the Mind of God, having been Alchemically Transfigured, being a Transmutation, was made Manifest a Singularity having a Numerical Value of One, was made manifest the Reality of First Cause, an effect made manifest the First, the  beginning of the Four-Dimensional Continuum.
   
   The Reality of First Cause being an Effect, being the First Singularity
   to have an Effect, being a Causeless Cause,  being the Reality of First Cause.
   
   Being an original product of the mind of God, Cause a;nd Effect is not the Source, the Origin the Cause of The Reality of First Cause, The Reality of First Cause having no direct material cause.

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