Originally posted by knightmeister
Fair enough , so does this mean that the truth that I thought was real and solid (cause and effect) is flimsy and is undermined by a more solid "ultimate" truth at the quantum level? Could one argue that the quatum level is more "ultimate" and "fundamental" since everything is "made" of it?
Do you see what I mean by ultimate truth now? Even you allude to something like it.
Okay, suppose I'm right, and that what you and I perceive as cause & effect in our everyday lives really is a scale illusion, the result of trillions of uncertain little subatomic particles. That would be interesting to know, especially if you happen to make your living in the field of particle physics. But does it mean you're going to stop paying attention to cause & effect in your daily life? Does it mean you'll, say, drive your car off a cliff, since according to quantum uncertainty your death will only be
virtually certain and not actually certain? Does it mean you, I dunno, love your wife any less, that you enjoy ice cream any less, etc? Does it make your life more or less meaningful? I submit that it doesn't, really. It is
one truth, and it may in fact be the truth on which our entire existence depends, but that's not to say it's the "ultimate" truth - and neither does it suggest that there can't be some other truth we'll find more meaningful, more profound, and with greater implications for our lives.
I guess what I'm saying that causality is just a subjective criteria for ultimate truth, and it's a pretty crappy one at that. We can argue that one truth is important because it lays the foundation for others, or we can argue that the other is more important because the first exists to support it. The universe, as far as we know, could care less; it's a unverse of facts, not value judgments, so one truth is incapable of giving another value in objective terms.
As an atheist I personally think we have to decide which truths are important to us, and we have to do that on our own. The universe isn't going to be much help. You'll disagree; but I hope you can understand that just because I think we came from dust and randomness doesn't mean I think that's all we are now, or that the dust defines our existence. It's not our ultimate truth; it's just our material cause.