dybmh
ויהי מבדיל בין מים למים
Not at all - each event was necessary to lead to the final effect.
But that doesn't measure which is the cause. That's the point.
I didn't say you did - I'm saying you should have.
OK. None the less, if an inanimate object is being considered the cause, then the inanimate object cannot do any harm on its own. It's a simultaneous event of forces interacting. Forces plural, not in a chain.
Indeed - But let's not ignore all the other events that led to that final effect.
If that is your model. The last one in the chain is the cause. Done.
Of course not. Everything led to the conflict. Every event is a part of the causal chain which led to the conflict.
Leading to the conflict, is not the cause. None the less, you have just admitted that the internet device is not the cause. The mouse trap is not the cause in exactly the same way.
If you wish to model it as a chain of events. The last event is the cause.
It seems, however, like you're looking to assign blame - and here's where your analogy falls down.
The mouse has no idea it's going to get its neck broken if it tries to eat the cheese in the trap, whereas the person clicking the advertisement knows full well what they're about to be browsing.
If the mousetrap hypotheitcal is abandoned, then yes, individuals are aware of avoiding satan, and they choose to engage with it exactly like the person choosing to comsume adult content online.
To improve your analogy, let's say instead that the pop-up advertisement is disguised as something innocuous - say, a link to an auto parts website. The person clicks on the ad hoping to find a new carburetor for a 1987 Honda Civic, and instead is inundated with hardcore porn.
The significant other sees this before the person has a chance to close the window.
It's still not the computer that caused the conflict. The autonomous inanimate object is not the cause ( noun ). It's the click-or-tap.
Maybe we can talk about the adverstiser, AFTER the computer and the mousetrap are eliminated as the cause.
Of course not - Because the causal chain we saw in the previous example has been broken.
Just as it would have been broken if the person had not decided to browse the internet that day, if the advertisement had never been there in the first place, or if the adult website had never existed.
Don't confuse "cause" with "blame."
The cause of the mouse in the trap is the mouse. The cause of the human consuming adult content is the human.
The cause is not the trap nor the internet device. The inanimate object is not the cause. You've admitted it.