(February 3, 2022 at 1:25 pm)HappySkeptic Wrote: In Quantum Mechanics, there is causality, but it doesn't mean what Kloro thinks it means.
Initial conditions determine the probabilities of "caused" events, but do not determine the actual events themselves.
If the Many Worlds interpretation is correct, the multi-verse-wide universal wavefunction evolves as it will - possibly deterministically, but which reality "this version of you" finds itself in is indeterminate.
If causes do not "determine" which 50/50 outcome happens, then one can say that choice was uncaused. But, the fact that such a 50/50 choice emerged in the first place is "caused" by the initial conditions prior to that choice.
Causality still places limits on what is possible, but QM guarantees that the actual results, within what is possible, aren't determined (or, if you like, aren't "caused").
So, if a god is responsible for the universe, it might set up the initial conditions of the Big Bang such that intelligent life is possible. Exactly if, when, where, and in what form it occurs would be a mystery, even to the god (and perhaps it exists only in certain versions of a multiverse).
The Everettian view doesn't work because there might be two options (spin up, spin down) but not necessarily a 50:50 split according to the Born rule. The wavefunction might have amplitudes such that you should get spin up 70% of the time and spin down 30% of the time. But if you keep splitting into just two branches, the overwhelming majority of the branches will record a 50:50 split, just like they were flipping a coin.