I am hesitant to comment since I am not a physicist nor a physics
teacher, but ...
It might be helpful to note that while there is a symmetry between
the x,y,z components of acceleration and those of force, that in many
cases there are different kinds of forces. So in a situation where
gravitational and magnetic forces are both acting, from the z
components of the two forces one can calculate the z acceleration,
from the z acceleration you can derive the net z force, but not the
magnetic force z component nor the gravitational force z component
separately.
I don't know that this justifies saying that the force causes the
acceleration, but it does seem to point to an assymmetry that might
be the good rationale for the temptation to make the causal claim.)
(I suspect I have not articulated this quite properly, but perhaps
someone can reformulate it more acceptably.)
Richard Grandy
Philosophy and Cognitive Sciences
Rice University
Houston TX USA