"It's a causal world."

I don't see "causality" as being metaphorical in the slightest. I think ordinary logic and common sense dictate that my father's parental statement to us growing up ("It's a causal world, kid.") was right on the money. The whole notion of "consequences" is built on the simple fact that one thing leads to another, either directly or indirectly, in this universe. Human senses and intelligence are built around this fact and have incorporated it into nearly every aspect of how our minds process sensory input. The fact that we are now rather overpopulated tends to prove that there is a survival benefit to the way our minds work-- in other words, we're successfully using those tools to manipulate our survival chances.

In one of the presentations I attended of my father's-- I can't remember if it was in Linz, Austria or Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA)... but he was talking about the limits and the goals of science... and he said, "We all have to agree on two things: First, that there are consistent causal pathways in all phenomena in the natural world and Second, that our minds and senses are capable of perceiving and interpreting meaningful information about these causal pathways. If either of these two things are not true, then we can all go home."