If causality has gaps
It means that some effects are not the products of what came before. They emerged outside of the physical laws, in a non-physical space.
Gaps are not unexplainability: electricity was not explained a thousand year ago. Moreover, future research could explain phenomena we don’t yet understand.
Gaps are not unpredictability: the weather is unpredictable because of its complexness, yet it respects known laws of atmospheric dynamics and physics.
Gaps are phenomena that don’t respect the physical laws: paranormal, miracles, gods, etc.
There has been attempts to prove that such gap exist. So far, none have succeeded; none have demonstrated that non-physical phenomena exist.
It is possible for extraordinary, extra-physical, phenomena to exists, but until their discovery, the only intellectually sound position is not to assume their existence. The burden of proof lies on the extraordinary position.
As far as we know, the extraordinary doesn’t exist.
As far as we know, causality has no gap.
If causality has no gap
It means that everything is the result of an unbroken chain of causes and effects.
It does not mean that the past can be fully understood and that future can be predicted; it doesn’t absolve from complexity.
It does not mean that something is in control, or that it has a purpose. Physical laws exist, but they are not conscious or intelligent.
It only means that the physical laws link what was, what is, and what will be.
For example, if you’ve not eaten in a while, your body produces Ghrelin, which makes you hungry. This is a product of physical laws, and not of your control.
You can still decide not to eat. Right?
Free will
Free will is colloquially understood as the ability to make choices, to have control.
It supposes that free-willed agents are not bound by causality, and that they can make choices regardless of chain of causality.
For example, you can choose to not eat, even if you are hungry.
The choice is a product of physical laws, which are outside of your control.
Free will, much like control, is an illusionary state.
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_science
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determined:_A_Science_of_Life_Without_Free_Will
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghrelin
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prizes_for_evidence_of_the_paranormal
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics
- https://github.com/nobe4/nobe4.github.io/issues/11
- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/definitions
- https://theconversation.com/a-stanford-professor-says-science-shows-free-will-doesnt-exist-heres-why-hes-mistaken-218525
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/determinism