Apparently, even non-Buddhist practitioners with some spiritual realization may still be confused about the workings of cause and effect, not to mention people without any right view or understanding. The complexity of the cycle of cause and effect and how it passes through the past, present and future makes it possible only for the Buddha to comprehend entirely its causal relationships. Others merely glimpse different parts of the cycle. These non-Buddhist practitioners are usually well learned; some may even have acquired certain clairvoyance into worldly matters. However, they jumped to a conclusion only based upon what they saw—virtuous people who took rebirth in the lower realms—and from this they concluded that cause and effect cannot exist. Then books were written and theories developed based on this conclusion, which gradually formed into a sect after attracting enough followers. This is how nihilism was established.

[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series ~ The Right View : On Cause and Effect]