Cause and effect happen within the field of the material Universe, which is eternally cycling from the process of creation, to maintenance, to dissolution .
Just as science assumes that the most basic fields of existence are eternal within the boundaries of the Universe, that means they don't change, they exist unending, they provide the foundation upon which change occurs.
They may have been a period where they did not "exist" in anything more than a virtual "sleep" state, but the continuity is just as real as the continuity of a human being who sleeps then awakes, sleeps then awakes.
While fully unconscious, the world disappears from the mind of man, time disappears from consciousness, and upon waking, the person picks up where they left off. A man in a coma could wake up after 20 years and have no more concept of passage of time as one who slept during the night and awoke in the morning.
So, it is logically possible for an eternal cyclical condition of waking of Universe, , activity of the Universe, then sleeping of Universe, and those within the boundaries of the Universe are fully subject to the laws of Karma, cause and effect...while the Universe itself is not subject to individual Karmas, as it is a whole. The Universe is lifeless, without soul, yet houses all the souls.
That is why the Buddhists believe in a Liberation. They believe that there is a state of being that is not cyclical, but eternal and never changing once achieved. The soul is liberated from the cycle of birth and death forever, upon full realization of the state which is beyond the cycle of birth and death.
What is that state? Nearly everyone experience it daily...when they sleep deeply.
The liberation is a permanent condition, like going to sleep forever, a complete loss of identity, dying for ever, fully liberated from cycle of birth and death, pain and pleasure, joy and suffering. All the duality is gone. Only Nirvana, Kaylava Moksh, impersonal form of God or whatever term people want to use, the situation remains.
However, there is also a liberated condition spoken of in Hinduism, which is the condition of retaining personal identity yet liberated from the cycle of birth and death, to be eternally with the Personal Form of God.
Quote from james_bond_3rd:
Alright. Since you're such a big fan of "cause and effect," what is the "cause" of the "design" without a designer? (Don't tell me it's "random ignorant chance."
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