Causation does not require 100% determinism. If X causes Y, it means that inducing X will increase the likelihood of Y. So counterexamples are not disproof. Yo

Causation does not require 100% determinism. If X causes Y, it means that inducing X will increase the likelihood of Y. So counterexamples are not disproof. You'd have to construct a lab experiment with enough subjects and measure over a long enough time. Unfortunately, it's difficult to construct a perfect double-blind study, because people usually know if they are eating sugar or not. Maybe if artificial sweeteners are good enough it might work, or maybe the experiment would still be convincing even if the subjects know. I'd be interested to see the results of such a study for sugar and heroin. I probably should be able to cite one before I claim it as fact, but I didn't think it was a very controversial claim. I think it's mainly a question of degree.