[js1138]

Or are you merely saying that you cannot predict the occurrence of a specific quantum event, which is an entirely different thing.

I am saying that the existence of a local cause is inconsistent with observed phenomena. Whether there is a cause outside our universe pulling the strings we cannot say.

The possibility of "hidden variables" has been ruled out by experiment.

[r9etb]

I am saying that the existence of a local cause is inconsistent with observed phenomena. Whether there is a cause outside our universe pulling the strings we cannot say.

Either that, or the present understanding of "our universe" is not sufficient to offer an explanation.

Still, the facts of predictability (in the sense that phenomena can be mathematically predicted before they're observed), and reproducibility of observation, are more suggestive of a "consistent mechanism" than they are of a situation where phenomena occur for no reason at all.