I partly agree with you, but I wouldn't go to the extent of using "easily" in this phrase -- > Statistical dependence can be determined easily if you know the

I partly agree with you, but I wouldn't go to the extent of using "easily" in this phrase -- > Statistical dependence can be determined easily if you know the distributions, Even if you know the distribution, a statistical test will make Type-I/II errors that you would have to take care of. Actually, I find the text linked above hard to understand, without properly defining 'c.' What's the sample space? In general, my sentiments are with the xkcd comic strip, but nothing more. Pearl's theories lay a firm foundation for communicating a causal hypothesis and manipulating it algebraically, but the true tests of causal hypothesis are: - Experimental evidence - The predictions it makes, in cases where experiments are hard to perform (e.g., in physics, when we make certain causal conjectures about how the universe works).