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KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. Based on ‘On Guard†by William Lane Craig. Romans 1 :19-20.
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KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT Based on ‘On Guard” by William Lane Craig
Romans 1 :19-20 • For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Kalam Cosmological Argument Abû Hâmid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazâlî • 1.Whatever begins to exist has a cause. • 2.The universe began to exist. • 3.Therefore, the universe has a cause.
1. WHATEVER BEGINS TO EXIST HAS A CAUSE. Premise 1
1.Something cannot come from nothing. • “Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could.” • Particles from vacuum • "vacuum is a sea of fluctuating energy governed by physical laws and having a physical structure."
Nothing • Nothing is absence of anything not even space • Even vacuum is not nothing
2.If something can come into being from nothing, then it becomes inexplicable why just anything or everything doesn’t come into being from nothing. • Why is it that only the universe will come out of nothing and the rest of things have a beginning
Objection :God and Cause • If everything has a cause why doesn't God have a cause? • Everything that begins has a cause God has no beginning hence is uncaused
3.Common experience and scientific evidence confirm the truth of premise
1.An Actually Infinite Number of Things Cannot Exist • When we say that something is potentially infinite, infinity serves merely as an ideal limit that is never reached. • Not possible of have infinite number of events • actually infinite number of things could exist, then various absurdities would result. If we’re to avoid these absurdities, then we must deny that an actually infinite number of things exist. That means that the number of past events cannot be actually infinite.
No vacancy sign all full One new customers come in
Infinite number of guests show up • Move guest from room 1 to 2 and guest from room 2 to 4 and room 3 to 6 and room 4 to 8 and room 5 to 10 and room 6 to 12 • All odd number rooms empty can fit infinite number of guests
If infinite number left • What if all guests in odd numbered rooms were to check out how many would be left ...the same number infinite !
What if all the guest checked out except the guests in room 4,5 and 6 how many would be left ? Just 3..infinite number left the hotel and only three left • What if all the guests in the odd numbered rooms checked out how many would be left? ..infinite • Infinite number of guests left and still infinite left behind?
2.You Can’t Pass Through an Infinite Number of Elements • You cannot count back from infinity to get the last domino today • Before any number could be counted an infinity of numbers will have to have been counted first. • The fact we have today means there is finite past
Suppose for every one orbit of Saturn , Jupiter makes two • Suppose they have both been orbiting from eternity past ..which one had more orbits? ...the same because infinite number of orbits
3.The Expansion of the Universe • Equations of general relativity..expansion • 1920s the Russian mathematician Alexander Friedman and the Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaître • Models of expand ing universe
Edwin Hubble..red shift 1929 • He found that the light from distant galaxies appeared to be redder than expected. This “redshift” in the light was most plausibly due to the stretching of the light waves as the galaxies move away from us.
The buttons are not moving apart ...space is Expanding universe like buttons on a ballon
Background cosmic radiation • 1964 by American radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson[2] was the culmination of work initiated in the 1940s, and earned them the 1978 Nobel Prize
Borde Guth Vilenkin Theorem 2003 • There is a beginning of space time • Any universe is expanding cannot have an infinite past but there must be a past space time boundary • It applies independently of any physical description of the early universe • Borde Guth Vilenkin Theorem proves that no matter what kind of scientific model one proposes (multiverse, oscillating universe, et)
It is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man. With the proof now in place, cosmologists can no longer hide behind the possibility of a past-eternal universe. There is no escape, they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning (pg. 176 Vilenkin’s 2006 book Many Worlds in One )
Theologians have often welcomed any evidence for the beginning of the universe, regarding it as evidence for the existence of God … So what do we make of a proof that the beginning is unavoidable? Is it a proof of the existence of God? This view would be far too simplistic. Anyone who attempts to understand the origin of the universe should be prepared to address its logical paradoxes. In this regard, the theorem that I proved with my colleagues does not give much of an advantage to the theologian over the scientis
4.The Thermodynamics of the Universe • The second law states that a closed system will tend toward increasing disorder, or entropy, until it reaches equilibrium. • Hence is universe existed in eternity past why it is not now in equilibrium ? • equilibrium would be the point at which the temperature and pressure are the same everywhere in the universe. No galaxies. No stars. No planets. • Recent discoveries show the cosmic expansion is accelerating
Is the Universe Self-Caused? • But this is impossible, for in order to create itself, the universe would have to already exist. It would have to exist before it existed. Dennett’s view is logically incoherent.
1. WHATEVER BEGINS TO EXIST HAS A CAUSE. Something cannot come from nothing Otherwise anything can come from nothing Scientific and human experiences show everything that begins has a cause
2.THE UNIVERSE BEGAN TO EXIST. Infinity is absurd You can't. Pass through infinite number of events to present The universe is expanding and shows a beginning The second law of thermodynamics indicate a beginning
Conclusion: the first cause • Uncaused First Cause. • It must transcend space and time, since it created space and time. • It must be immaterial and nonphysical. • It must be unimaginably powerful, since it created all matter and energy. • It must be personal
It must be personal • The first cause is a personal being with freedom of the will. His creating the universe is a free act that is independent of any prior conditions. So his act of creating can be something spontaneous and new. • It’s the only way to explain how a timeless cause can produce a temporal effect with a beginning like the universe. • Water freezing below zero would have always been frozen from eternity past no beginning