Religion The Cause is human behavior; the effect is benovalent or malevolant actions of Gods Scientific We observe the effect; we must deduce the cause

The importance of the general idea of Cause and Effect

Lets' start around 600 BC. By this time Greek Culture was quite well defined and the idea of Law, as a means of establishing order was firmly in place.

If society itself could be "governed" by a set of rational laws, then clearly Nature must be similarly be government by a consistent set of "physical" laws.

this is the idea of Universality:

for there must be some natural substance, either one or more than one, from which the other things come-into-being, while it is preserved -- Thales

This leads to the identification of basic elements: Air, Earth, Fire, Water

• Thales Water: world floats in primordial sea
• Anaximenes Air is ultimate: stars are fires in the sky

Now we have CAUSE and EFFECT and the first hints of the physical nature of the Universe.

There are three components to cause and effect:

• contiguity in space
• temporal priority of the cause (i.e. its first)
• information exchange