ABSTRACT
The fact that nothing in the nature of power or causal efficacy involves necessary connection can be seen from the traditional definition of necessity alone. Had the assertion of necessity remainded suspended only from the idea of God's omnipotence and omniscience, the denial of this idea or the refusal to consider it as a significant instrument in the analysis of the causal relation, would have opened the way to a more satisfactory account of the causal relation. The laws of nature can be regarded as: descriptions of observed phenomena; explanations of observed phenomena; conventional schemes into which we fit our experiences; or as ways of acting imposed by God. Once it is recognized that scientific determinism is an embodiment of the idea of God's omnipotence and omniscience, the fact that traditional science has found it impossible to give a satisfactory account of the causal relation becomes entirely understandable.
