In his essay The Question Concerning Technology, Martin Heidegger says “For centuries philosophy has taught us that there are four causes: the causa materialis…the causa formalis…the causa finalis…(and) the causa efficiens” (6). So, when people say “cause-and-effect” or “correlation is not causation”, they probably have not understood the true nature of the causes.
Recently I was involved in a conversation with a former co-worker, who had taken the covid vax (but had refused the uploads) and a friend who had taken several uploads. When I said that I was persecuted at work for refusing the military-Pfizer injection (contracted out of Picatinny Arsenal Operation Warp Speed Picatinny Contract), the former coworker said that “as we say in mathematics, correlation does not equal causation.” He was offended by my gut-level rejection of the vax and his reasoned inability to see it’s dangers from the beginning. His rationalism had led him to the jab. My naturalistic practices and poetic reasoning helped me resist the jab.
It is easy to avoid the truth that our rational minds are insufficient to make wise choices, since we live in an era defined by the Cartesian cataclysm. But discernment requires a spiritual intuition. The technocrat fails to see this. To paraphrase Heidegger: the truth is not always right.
Consider St. Joseph. When his betrothed came to him and said she was pregnant, he knew that she had committed a sin. The right thing to do was to divorce her openly and report her behavior to the religious authorities, who had the right of stoning her to death. The right thing to do was to kill the mother of God and her incarnate fetus.
But Joseph disobeyed the right and did what was good. He obeyed a dream and his natural kindness and disobeyed the reasoning of the law.
I do not know if I fully understand the four causes that are the basis for cause-and-effect reasoning. I read them over-and-over each time I restart this essay by Heidegger. (Reading Homer in Greek is easier, and I just know Latin.) But what I have grasped is that cause-and-effect is more complicated than the financial advisor or the pharmacological doctor would have us believe.
The Causa Materialis is the matter out of which something is created. Heidegger uses the example of a chalice—its material is gold or silver.
Let’s consider the causa materialis of the mRNA therapies. Reportedly they are not traditional vaccines—in fact many suggest the definition of “vaccine” was changed to fit these new therapies. So, they are gene therapies. Their matter is of a new kind from all previous vaccines.
Due to Operation Warp Speed, the trials and tests required of previous traditional vaccines were put aside. Thus, a new therapy was green-lit without the safeguards required of tried and tested vaccines. Red Flag.
Causa Formalis is the form or shape the material enters. The needle and syringe or the microsopic substance that is the constructed delivery system of the therapy? For symbolic purposes it is the former—and symbolism sways minds. The injection system is like other vaccines, but the true formalis of the mRNA therapy is the trademarked, microsopic construct that is the product of the pharmacological research. Some say it involves toxic nanoparticles. I do not know its composition nor its principles of adherence.
The Causa Finalis is the end to which the gene therapy is directed. That cause is debated. Was it a bioweapon to depopulate and sterilize an unwary public? Was it a good faith therapy to stop the threat of the Covid disease? Was it both? Was it something else. Here is where cause becomes a question. Politics, ethics, spirituality, reason, faith and doubt all engage in this causa. For those of us with a natural mistrust of the pharmacological system and the military, this is a point of doubt.
The Causa Efficiens is that which brings about the effect of the finished product. For the chalice, it is the silversmith. For the mRNA therapy it might be the particular UPenn scientists who developed the system. Or it might be the military-Pfizer cooperative that manufactured this particular therapy. From there one may explore the motivations of such effectors.
Each of these causes is subject to a thousand variances of opinion. Perspective colors all our facts. There is a truth to these questions about these injections, but saying “cause-and-effect” will not get one any closer to it. Causation is more complicated than correlation (as a posteriori thinking is to a priori) but a proper understanding of causation’s questions will lead to humility in discussion.
But, when in doubt, I’ll trust my a priori gut.
Heidegger, Martin (trans. Lovitt, William) The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. Harper Torchbooks NY 1977