Correlation

A pattern in which two or more things change together more often than chance alone would produce. Correlation is evidence that a connection may exist; it is not the connection. Only Causation ties an effect to the agent whose action produced it, and only causation carries responsibility. Punishing on correlation -- membership, association, resemblance, statistics -- is punishing without causation, and it creates innocent victims, as in Collective Punishment. Models built on correlation may predict, but they explain nothing without the cause; a prediction that works is not yet understanding.