what is the kalam cosmological argument

Therefore, it follows that the universe cannot be infinitely old and began to exist. It reached medieval Christian philosophy in the 13th century and was discussed by Bonaventure, as well as Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica (I, q.2, a.3) and Summa Contra Gentiles (I, 13). The claim of the first premise is “whatever begins to exist had a cause.” It’s often demonstrated by listing the causal principle “something cannot come from nothing,” or ex nihilo, nihilo fit. Craig has criticised Balashov for adopting a verificationist methodology that fails to address the metaphysical and theological foundations of the A-theory. The first two are purely philosophical arguments; the second two are scientific confirmations of the conclusion reached by the philosophical arguments. The Principle of Proportional Causality (PPC), which states that whatever is present in the effect must be somehow present in the cause, would require the patterns and information of the universe to be present within the cause somehow. The second premise follows also from A Theory along with the nature of infinity being endless. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. The true relativistic-quantum-field-theoretical equivalent to there not being any physical stuff at all isn’t this or that particular arrangement of the fields—what it is (obviously, and ineluctably, and on the contrary) is the simple absence of the fields.”. The ancient philosopher Isaiah declared, “lift up your eyes on high and see, who created these?” (Isaiah 40:26), reminding his people that what we see should lead us to ask why we see it. Quantum mechanics does not in fact posit something coming from nothing, but rather things coming from the quantum vacuum–which is not “nothing.” Being only comes from being. Another criticism comes from Thomist philosopher Dr. Edward Feser who claims that past and future events are potential rather than actual, meaning that an infinite past could exist in a similar way to how an infinite number of potential halfway points exist between any two given points (as was discussed in one of Zeno’s paradoxes). A simple thought experiment demonstrates that an actual infinite number of things that are countable leads to absurdities. Craig notes: “Hume himself clearly believed in the causal principle. If God made everything, who made God? Anscombe, who point out the phenomenological and logical problems in inferring factual possibility from conceivability. If the PPC is not accepted, given that the cause of the universe must be a personal and free agent, the complexity and precision of the universe implies extreme intelligence. Its historic proponents include Al-Kindi, Al-Ghazali, and St. Bonaventure. It should be easy to observe the absurdities here. The first premiss of the kalam cosmological argument is obviously more plausibly true than its contradictory. But, if the logical conclusion still fails to garner a reasonable acknowledgment, Professor Greg Koukl sums it up, “Here’s the simplified version: A Big Bang needs a big Banger. Craig formulates thekalām cosmological argument this way (in Craig and Smith1993: chap. An infinite amount of time can never truly pass (because infinite time would never run out). The Spiritual Life © 2020. In a critique of Craig’s book The Kalam Cosmological Argument, published in 1979, Michael Martin states: “It should be obvious that Craig’s conclusion that a single personal agent created the universe is a non sequitur. Since the two premises of the kalam cosmological argument are true, the conclusion necessarily and inescapably follows – namely, that the Universe has a cause for its existence. “–Defenders Podcast, “The Cosmological Argument (Part 1)” | Reasonable Faith,”. That is the purpose of the Kalam Cosmological argument, to explore the possibility of a supernatural first cause. How can one add or subtract from infinities? Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Being does not arise from non-being. It was popularized in the western world by William Lane Craig in his book, The Kalām Cosmological Argument (1979). If you have any suggestions, questions or need help please feel free to contact us. The only assumption that we made was that the expansion rate of the universe never gets below some nonzero value, no matter how small.”, Victor J. Stenger has referred to the Aguirre-Gratton model for eternal inflation as an exemplar by which others disagree with the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin theorem. Everything that begins to exist has a cause of itsexistence. If anyone has any material objections to the Kalam proof , … A second type of cosmological argument, contending for a first orbeginning cause of the universe, has a venerable history, especiallyin the Islamic mutakalliman tradition. The argument generally goes something like this: This argument presupposes presentism or the A Theory of time. His conception of first causeis the idea that the universe must have been caused by something which was itself uncaused, which he asserted was God. He writes: “According to the hypothesis under consideration, it has been established that all the beings in the world have a cause. Craig replies that the phenomenon of indeterminism is specific to the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, pointing out that this is only one of a number of different interpretations, some of which he states are fully deterministic (mentioning David Bohm) and none of which are as yet known to be true. Modern discourse encompasses the fields of both philosophy and science (quantum physics and cosmology), which Bruce Reichenbach summarises as: “… whether there needs to be a cause of the first natural existent, whether something like the universe can be finite and yet not have a beginning, and the nature of infinities and their connection with reality”. Almost there! [iii] Therefore the universe must have a cause for its Andrew Loke has argued against the metaphysical possibility of a beginningless universe as well as that of an actual infinite existing in the real world. Whether evaluating simple cells or the entire universe, the scientist’s role is to determine a cause to the observable evidence. As the creator of time, space … Being does not arise from non-being. Imagine a series of infinite dominoes lined up. It is named after the kalam (medieval Islamic scholasticism) from which its key ideas originated. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), ← Justin Martyr: Founder of Christian Apologetics. Answer: This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the claim. For those of you unaware of what exactly the Kalam Cosmological Argument is, here it is: Whatever begins to exist has a cause. To finish the series at a certain point, and to elevate one member of the series to the dignity of an un-caused first cause, is to set at naught the very law of causation on which the whole argument proceeds.”, According to the atheist philosopher Quentin Smith, “a count of the articles in the philosophy journals shows that more articles have been published about Craig’s defense of the Kalam argument than have been published about any other philosopher’s contemporary formulation of an argument for God’s existence.”. Craig cannot validly conclude that a single agent is the creator. They are usually presented Every effect requires a cause adequate to explain it. The Kalām cosmological argument is a modern formulation of the cosmological argument for the existence of God; named for the kalam (medieval Islamic scholasticism), it was popularized by William Lane Craig in hisThe Kalām Cosmological Argument (1979). According to the kalam, there can be only one itself-uncaused-and-eternal thing that causes all other things, and that first cause is God. What is the Kalam cosmological argument for the existence of God? Balashov claims: “Despite the fact that presentism has the firm backing of common sense and eternalism revolts against it, eternalism is widely regarded as almost the default view in contemporary debates, and presentism as a highly problematic view.”. Furthermore, Since the cause of the universe must exist outside time, space, and all material, the cause must be spaceless, timeless, and non-material; i.e. The first argument and backing for the second premise, “The Universe Began to Exist,” is philosophical. For this, he cites the example of a parent “creating” a child who eventually becomes greater than he or she. Al-Ghazali was unconvinced by the first-cause arguments of Al-Kindi, arguing that only the infinite per se is impossible, arguing for the possibility of the infinite per accidens. The first premise seems to be self-evident, which any rational person would take as true without dissent. A common objection to premise one appeals to the phenomenon of quantum indeterminacy, where, at the subatomic level, the causal principle appears to break down. A classic which has recently been re-polished and re-popularized, it has withstood the test of time in its field. He states: “We have no experience of the origin of worlds to tell us that worlds don’t come into existence like that. The metaphysical impossibility of an actually infinite series of past events by citing David Hilbert’s famous Hilbert’s Hotel thought experiment and Laurence Sterne’s story of Tristram Shandy. Question 1: Is the Kalam Cosmological Argument (KCA) a successful argument? Along with much of classical Greek philosophy, the concept was adopted into medieval Islamic tradition, where it received its fullest articulation at the hands of Muslim scholars, most directly by Islamic theologians of the Sunni tradition. Because of its historic roots in medieval Islamic theology, I christened the argument “the kalam cosmological argument” (“ kalam ” is the Arabic word for medieval theology). 1komma5grad-quellen – Matthias Ziemer Photography says: Earth’s Crisis and Evolution Series- Part 1 Finding Commonality in Religious and Spiritual Pathways – SacredFireofKnowledge says: Premise one: “Whatever begins to exist has a cause.”, Premise two: “The universe began to exist.”, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window), “Initial Arguments: A Defense of the Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God”, “Cosmological Argument: The Causal Principle and Quantum Physics”, 1komma5grad-quellen – Matthias Ziemer Photography, ... [Trackback] [...] Read More Infos here: slife.org/ethics-in-religion/ [...], […] https://www.discovermongolia.mn/about-mongolia/culture-art-history/religion-in-mongolia https://slife.org/mongolian-shamanism/ https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-religions-are-practiced-in-mongolia.html […], ... [Trackback] [...] Find More Informations here: slife.org/western-slang-lingo-and-phrases/ [...], ... [Trackback] [...] Read More: slife.org/mens-rights-movement/ [...]. It is a very effective argument in defending the philosophical position of theistic worldviews. Philosophically, Craig states that this statement is a first principle of metaphysics. Everything that exists has an explanation of its existence. Abstract objects, the only other ontological category known to have the properties of being uncaused, spaceless, timeless and immaterial, do not sit in causal relationships, nor can they exercise volitional causal power. If both philosophy and science conclude that there was a beginning to our universe (a first event), then we should also inquire about the first cause if it is our desire to understand the truth about our world and its existence. An alternative way to argue against the past eternity of the universe is through the impossibility of traversing (counting/crossing/completing) infinity. Therefore, one... […] Sunni Muslims perform the following: […]. There are a handful of famous arguments for the existence of a god. The Cosmological Argument (also known as the Kalam cosmological argument), is a philosophical argument for the existence of God or a first cause that brought the entire universe into existence. Professor Alexander Vilenkin, one of the three authors of the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin theorem, writes: “A remarkable thing about this theorem is its sweeping generality. 2. Two central ones are the Kalam argument and the argument from contingent existence. We made no assumptions about the material content of the universe. Basically, you put a god into the premises and (surprise!) Although it hadnumerous defenders through the centuries, it received new life in therecent voluminous writings of William Lane Craig. Any defense you could give of the principle would be based upon premises which are less obvious than the principle itself. This premise is supportable both philosophically and scientifically. Pretty obvious.”7. Huduth argument (in contemporary Western philosophy known as Kalam Cosmological argument) is an argument for the existence of God which rests on the idea that the universe has a beginning in time. This latter fact is well known, however, and shows nothing about whether it is logically impossible to have actual infinities in the real world.”. Also, if there is a hard stop in the future for the number of days, and yet we posit an infinite past, wouldn’t the end of the chain of days have already arrived an infinite amount of time ago? The mathematical impossibility of forming an actual infinite by successive addition. This feature distinguishes it from other cosmological arguments, such as that of Thomas Aquinas, which rests on the impossibility of a causally ordered infinite regress, and those of Leibniz and Samuel Clarke, which refer to the Principle of Sufficient Reason. If A Theory is correct, all past moments would have to occur before the present, which would vindicate the first premise. 6. I think that pretty much covers it. We don’t even have experience of the coming into being of anything remotely analogous to the “initial singularity” that figures in the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.”. The phrase "first cause" is sometimes used as an alternative noun for God among individuals uncomfortable with the historical and religious meanings as… What we can do after this is explore what it means to be a cause of the universe. A fundamental role of science is to explore cause and effect relationships. Therefore, only. Philosopher Yuri Balashov has criticised Craig’s attempt to reconcile the A-theory with special relativity by relying on a ‘neo‐Lorentzian interpretation’ of Special Relativity. The Kalam Cosmological Argument (KCA) is a different approach, proposed by Muslim philosophers in the Middle Ages. Craig holds four arguments in favor of the beginning of the universe. The argument is very simple in its structure. Craig formulates the Kalam as follows: P1. If the past were infinitely long, an infinite amount of time would have had to pass before today. On the contrary, for all he shows, there may have been trillions of personal agents involved in the creation.”. Be sure to leave a comment about this post below. The cosmological argument shows that in fact it is quite reasonable to believe that God does exist. My response in the video includes more detail. Martin also claims that Craig has not justified his claim of creation “ex nihilo“, pointing out that the universe may have been created from pre-existing material in a timeless or eternal state. According to Craig, this is the crucial premise of the argument. The Kalam Cosmological Argument, edited by Paul Copan with William Lane Craig, focuses excluaively on one of the a posteriori arguments for the existence of God: the Kalam cosmological argument. Through-out history, man has looked at the star-filled night sky and wondered at the purpose behind its existence. The Kalam Cosmological Argument leads us to the conclusion that the universe does, indeed, have a cause. As Aristotle said, you shouldn’t try to prove the obvious by the less obvious.”4, “Sometimes I’ll say to audiences, ‘Nobody here in the audience is worried that while we are here listening to this talk that back home in your living room a horse might have popped into being out of nothing and is defiling the carpet while we talk.’ We don’t worry about those kinds of things. All Rights Reserved. The Kalam cosmological argument is a modern formulation of the cosmological argument for the existence of God. The universe began to exist. The argument is that unless God exists, this question is unanswerable. He concludes that subatomic physics is not a proven exception to the first premise. Here's the kalam/cosmological argument as rendered deductively by Craig (see included links for details): 1. whatever begins to exist has a cause of its existence 2. the universe began to exist 3. therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence In addition to the above arguments, several points can be made which draw further conclusions about the nature of the cause. 3 For anybody who really contemplates it, it should be obvious that whatever begins to exist has a cause. The Kalam cosmological argument has received criticism from philosophers such as J. L. Mackie, Graham Oppy, Michael Martin, Quentin Smith, physicists Paul Davies, Lawrence Krauss and Victor Stenger, and authors such as Dan Barker. Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence. The law of causality suggests that every effect that begins must have a prior cause. "Kalam" is a school of thought that tries to defend Islam intellectually against criticisms. At most, this Kalam argument shows that some personal agent or agents created the universe. For it is no secret that one of the most important conceptions of what theists mean by ‘God’ is Creator of heaven and earth.”. In the subsequent Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology, published in 2009, Craig discusses the properties of the cause of the universe, explaining how they follow by entailment from the initial syllogism of the Kalam cosmological argument: Craig concludes that the cause of the existence of the universe is an “uncaused, personal Creator … who sans the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless and enormously powerful”; remarking upon the theological implications of this union of properties. The Kalam cosmological argument has been reintroduced with some rigour into the philosophy of religion through the work of analytic philosopher William Lane Craig. http://reasonablefaith.org - Hear special guest Dr. William Lane Craig walk us through the Kalam Cosmological Argument. Morriston asserts that causal laws are physical processes for which we have intuitive knowledge in the context of events within time and space, but that such intuitions do not hold true for the beginning of time itself. Today this argument, largely forgotten since the time of Kant, is once again back at center stage. In addition to Occam’s Razor, it may be argued that the unicity and coherence of the universe implies a single agent behind the creation of the universe. Why or why not? It consists of two premises and a conclusion. This is basically just another way of claiming something has always existed, and A first state of the material world cannot have a material explanation and must originate, Even if positing a plurality of causes prior to the origin of the universe, the causal chain must terminate in a cause which is absolutely first and, Agent causation, volitional action, is the only ontological condition in which an effect can arise in the absence of prior determining conditions. The term kalam is Arabic and means “eternal.” On the topic of virtual particles, he writes: “For virtual particles do not literally come into existence spontaneously out of nothing. Moreover, that the Causal Principle cannot be extrapolated to the universe from inductive experience. In its simplest, bare bone form, the kalam cosmological argument goes like this: [i] All that begins to exist must have a cause for its existence. Further, Aristotle described metaphysics as the study of being. Since an actual infinite number of things can’t actually exist, then the universe can’t be infinite in the past and must have a beginning. To remain reasonable, one must agree that these sound like certain attributes of the Christian God. Cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin has stated that even “the absence of space, time and matter” cannot truly be defined as ‘nothing’ given that the laws of physics are still present, though it would be “as close to nothing as you can get”. Pages Businesses Nonprofit Organization Reasonable Faith Videos The Kalam Cosmological Argument Similarly, if the number of days extends infinitely into the past, how did we arrive at today? But, imagine that we could prove But if it extends infinitely, how could one start it at a beginning? He writes: “Even if the universe has a beginning in time, in the light of recently proposed cosmological theories this beginning may be uncaused. Let’s take a brief look at the two premises. Scientific evidence that the universe began to exist a finite time ago at the Big Bang. We did not even assume that gravity is described by Einstein’s equations. I would say no less special than a true beginning of the universe.”, At the “State of the Universe” conference at Cambridge University in January 2012, Vilenkin discussed problems with various theories that would claim to avoid the need for a cosmological beginning, alleging the untenability of eternal inflation, cyclic and cosmic egg models, eventually concluding: “All the evidence we have says that the universe had a beginning.”. Something cannot come into existence out of nothing. According to Craig, the Kalam Cosmological Argument is constructed as follows: Whatever begins to exist, has a cause of its existence. Here’s the argument in a deductive syllogism: Another great argument for the second premise, “The Universe Began to Exist,” is derived from the field of physics. Craig defends the first premise as follows: According to Reichenbach, “the Causal Principle has been the subject of extended criticism”, which can be divided into philosophical and scientific criticisms. Moreover, that Craig takes his argument too far beyond what his premises allow in deducing that the creating agent is greater than the universe. The most commonly used form is “horizontal,” also known as the kalam cosmological argument. There have been many versions of the cosmological argument, but the KCA hearkens back to a Muslim theologian named Al-Ghazali. Kalam cosmological argument as a brief syllogism, most commonly rendered as follows: Finally, if you wanted to observe the fall of the dominoes, where does one start since there is no beginning or no ending to the chain? The universe’s existence is best explained as created by God, because the Kalam Cosmological Argument requires an essential and supernatural first cause. The Kalam cosmological argument is based on the concept of the prime-mover, introduced by Aristotle, and entered early Christian or Neoplatonist philosophy in Late Antiquity, being developed by John Philoponus. It is very simple and easy to memorize. supernatural. It is named after the kalam (medieval Islamic scholasticism) from which its key ideas originated. In his book A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing, cosmologist Lawrence Krauss has proposed how quantum mechanics can explain how space-time and matter can emerge from ‘nothing’ (referring to the quantum vacuum). Craig maintains that the Kalam cosmological argument involves a commitment to the A-theory of time, also known as the “tensed theory of time” or presentism, as opposed to its alternative, the B-theory of time, also known as the “tenseless theory of time” or eternalism. Therefore Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence. The universe began to exist. The universe began to … What can we say about this cause? Some have been around for centuries, and new arguments are popping up every day. The Kalam is an apologetics argument that claims everything has to have a cause except for the thing the arguer is claiming exists without a cause. He and his wife met in high school and celebrated their 20th year of marriage in 2020. Philosopher Michael Martin has also referred to quantum vacuum fluctuation models to support the idea of a universe with uncaused beginnings. (the two I had were not really real debates) The child mortality rate in the United States, for children under the … you get a god out as a conclusion. Isn't it intolerant to say that Christianity is the It is the opposite... […] Quran was written in the 7th century CE. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa theologiae, presented two versions of the cosmological argument: the first-cause argument and the argument from contingency. To describe the nature of all matter, Sagan (an atheist) appealed to a first cause. Islamic perspectives may be divided into positive Aristotelian responses strongly supporting the argument, such as those by Al-Kindi, and Averroes, and negative responses critical of it, including those by Al-Ghazali and Muhammad Iqbal. He appeals to David Hume’s thesis (An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding) that effects without causes can be conceived in the mind, and that what is conceivable in the mind is possible in the real world. Popular astronomer Carl Sagan, when explaining how stars contain the necessary materials for life, once said, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” 1. 1): 1. Graham Oppy, J. L. Mackie and Wes Morriston have objected to the intuitiveness of the first premise. If time is tenseless, then the universe never really comes into being, and, therefore, the quest for a cause of its coming into being is misconceived.”. An actually infinite number of things cannot exist. Why does our worldview matter? He states, “Being only comes from being. Craig has revived it as a tenable and viable argument for today’s time and culture, in its original use to argue for the existence of God. It was popularized in the western world by William Lane Craig in his book, The Kalām Cosmological Argument (1979). Let’s begin: The Kalam Cosmological Argument 2 is currently one of the most researched and referred to arguments for the existence of God because its formulation encapsulates a philosophical and scientific evaluation on the origins of the universe and causality. The latter would allow the universe to exist tenselessly as a four-dimensional space-time block, under which circumstances the universe would not “begin to exist”: “From start to finish, the kalam cosmological argument is predicated upon the A-Theory of time. The Kalam Cosmological Argument (KCA) was popularized by William Lane Craig, one of the preeminent Christian philosophers today. So, he concludes that this is a kind of first principle of metaphysics. Whatever begins to exist has a cause. The Kalam Cosmological Argument leads us to the conclusion that the universe does, indeed, have a cause. Now, let the cause itself have a cause, and the cause of the cause have yet another cause, and so on ad infinitum. Further, if you want to add to the chain of dominoes, how do you get to the end of an infinite chain to add one more domino into the chain? It does not behove you to say that an infinite regress of causes is impossible.”, “A finite effect can give only a finite cause, or at most an infinite series of such causes. In private correspondence with Stenger, Vilenkin remarked how the Aguirre-Gratton model attempts to evade a beginning by reversing the “arrow of time” at t = 0, but that: “This makes the moment t = 0 rather special.

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