Cause and effect is a story. It is simplistic and conceptual and sometimes useful.
Another useful concept is conditions. For the sake of satisfying mind, we can say that any event requires conditions that enable it. For example, for me to be here typing these squiggles on a screen, an obviously necessary condition is the presence of the computer. Consider the conditions required for a computer to come into existence.
Another condition is that this organism has to have experiences that include schooling.
Going back further, another condition is that my parents conceived me. ..and the conditions required that meant that they were conceived and had all of their life experiences exactly as they did to be able to have and raise me exactly as they did.
If we follow this line then we can extrapolate back to every ancestor and the conditions that enabled them to not only procreate but to provide the conditions for their offspring to do the same.
In order to be born, i needed:
2 parents
4 grandparents
8 great-grandparents
16 second great-grandparents
32 third great-grandparents
64 fourth great-grandparents
128 fifth great-grandparents
256 sixth great-grandparents
512 seventh great-grandparents
1,024 eighth great-grandparents
2,048 ninth great-grandparents
For you to be born today from 12 previous generations,
i needed a total of 4,094 ancestors over the last 400
years. ..and of course this goes back to the beginning of existence.
If we go back hundreds of generations, we can even say that some of the conditions required were the food and shelter that enabled them to provide future generations with the necessary conditions.
That food required conditions to exist.
Even the butterfly in the Amazon is tied in with conditions necessary for me to be here doing this.
In fact, there is no thing, no event, no anything since the beginning of existence (& maybe before this) that isn’t a necessary condition for this happening. Change any one condition and [u]this[/u] would be different.
As profound as this is, it is not saying that these conditions are part of something. It’s like a hologram. The total is made up of totals. Every (apparent) part is everything. A single piece of stardust floating galaxies away is a necessary condition for THIS.
Nothing stands alone. Everything is connected. All is One.
..and as good as all this sounds, it’s just a story.