The First Cause Argument: Causal Loop

The Causal Loop: An Argument against an Infinite Universe
Further Information about the First Cause Argument

In the First Cause Argument (FCA), I made the statement that an overall defense of the argument would be written in Part 2 and would help address the main challenges against it. Well, as you know it hasn't been written and the reasons are why I am writing this now - along with a few more articles. Simply put, to defend something you must know what you are defending. Without knowing the details of the argument I would serve an injustice instead of helping you understand the argument itself; supplying pithy statements over informed assessments. These following articles are written with a more in-depth look at each of the main arguments for the First Cause - starting with the Causal Loop.

An important point was made that something could not be prior to itself: an effect could not cause itself because it must be prior to itself– being false. Why is this false? Why does it matter? This is called the causal loop argument.

A Causal loop, as by its name, is based upon causations; that for each cause there is an effect, however, the difference lies within the idea of it being looped. For the older folks, you may remember in the Atari games once you achieved a certain level the game ‘flips or goes back to level zero and you start the whole process over. Lets take a circle as our example and specify a particular point on the circumference. The circle represents the infinite loop of causations and the specific point on the circle represents any specific cause or group of causes. What you will immediately notice is either way you go about the circle you come back to the same point – nothing is added and nothing is taken away.

This idea is not as complex as it may first seem, but a short story should clarify this. If you have seen any movies or read any books that consist of Time Travel you have heard these type of theories. A young man as he was growing up witnesses an assassination. His desire is to save this person, thus, in his future he desires to travel back in time. When he is sent back into time he walks into the room where the assignation plot were to happen. Instead of saving him, the person was killed because his entrance was believed to be by an intruder; thus being the inspiration of him traveling back in time.

What does this mean? Each cause or causes that that specified point represents must always be prior and later than its self at the same time – remember this is a circle and all direction is bent back to itself. The infinite causal loop defines that each effect caused itself and each cause affects itself simultaneously. The problem with this argument is there are no known, or possibly known, objects that are prior to itself – I was not alive before I lived, nor did I type this letter before it was typed.

For this idea to be correct, that there is a causal loop, the universe would have to have existed before it existed and exist after it existed at the same time. This cannot be so because there would be no origin, no causes, and no effects; all which are observable. Thus, our first substantiated premise for the First Cause Argument is that time arrows in one direction and is not looped.