Hi jjw,
Something you said caught my eye. You said "... i believe that there is a cause for everything ...". The whole concept of causes has a very long history some of which falls under the rubric of teleology.
Aristotle pretty much leads the parade:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-causality/ On teleology in general see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleology David Hume also had an interesting take on cause and effect. A fair run down on Hume's ideas is at
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/ The perception of cause and effect has a powerful influence on the way people think and interact. It is natural and intuitive - seems so obvious. This is especially true of scientist, but the ideas involved are not so cut and dried. Younger, less experienced and, sorry to say, even some older scientist never question their teleological principles.
Dr. R.
