[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Daffy Duck

But I see no reason to think that EVERY single little thing that happens to a person is because of that person.

And if you carry on far enough, your inquiry will lead you to consider the meaning of a "person".

What is a "person"; where does "he" begin; where does he "end". Is a person merely his flesh, his bones, his blood? Is he also his words, and his deeds? If he is also his words and his deeds, then is he also the thoughts that produced those words and deeds? What then are the causes of those thoughts and deeds? And what are the causes of those causes?

Do you not know the "persons" you know, by their names, their jobs, their homes, their family members, their cultures, their societies, their countries, their genes, the history of their clans, the stories that they tell you about themselves? And the planet that they live on?

If that is how you know a "person", does a "person" really end where his body ends? Or is he not part of all the things you know him by - in other words, his name, his job, his home, his family members, his culture, his society, his country, his genes, his history, his stories, his planet? Does the person end where his body ends, or is there no boundary, is he simply part of a greater ever-expandig chain of events and circumstances which include his name, his job, his home, his family members, his culture, his society, his country, his genes, his history, his stories, his planet?

Where does the body end anyway? If the body is made up of mostly empty space and a few subatomic particles blinking in and out of existence, then how is the body different from the chair it sits on, which is also mostly empty space and the same kids of subatomic particles blinking in and out of existence? Indeed how is the body to be differentiated from the air around it, or from the entire universe itself (since it's the same mostly-empty space with the same subatomic particles). Isn't it just one extended, perfectly uniform quantum field of mostly empty space and blinking particles that we perceive .... a person .... to exist?

At the end of this ...

Do you see that a "person" is merely a concept? And what is a concept, how does it arise, where does it ever live .... except in your mind?

Now go back to your statement:

But I see no reason to think that EVERY single little thing that happens to a person is because of that person.

And ask yourself - what is a "single little thing"? Then ask yourself what is a "person"?

Then ask yourself, what are the concepts that I have applied, in answering the above two questions?

Then ask yourself, "Where did those concepts arise? Could they have arisen differently? If I had chosen otherwise ...?"

And then ..... revisit your own question again.

And THEN, ask yourself ... What can EVER exist, if I did not have a concept for it?