Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Kalām Cosmological Argument

Recently, I've been reading up on position papers both propagating and denouncing the Kalām Cosmological Argument of the existence of God. In Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, philosophers William Lane Craig and J.P. Moreland contend that there is a cause for the existence of the universe, and that existence is God.

The premise is that the universe exists, and whatever exists must have had a cause. Therefore, something caused the universe to exist. This, supposes that the universe began to exist.

Craig and Moreland assert that the universe is finite, because 1) philosophically, there cannot be an actualized infinite. As much as we try to rationalize it, infinity is logically untenable when dealing with finite elements. Examples are provided, such as Hilbert's Hotel. Point 2) is that scientific laws back this up; everything that exists had some beginning, which therefore includes the universe.

Contrarian opinion is provided by philosopher Paul Draper. He maintains that the phrase began to exist applies to temporal entities. This supposes that the Universe is temporal and subject to Universal Laws, which may not make sense, considering it is the thing. He does not dismiss the idea of the Kalam argument out of hand, but is urging for better defending of its holdings.

Giving this some thought, I have to side with Craig and Moreland. The Universe is temporal; it cannot exist outside of time as everything within the universe is subject to time. The Big Bang theory points to a time when all matter in the universe was condensed to a pinhead. This small entity existed in something, but that something was extra-universal, as it wasn't what we understand the universe to be now. Accordingly, there was a time, if we were to travel with Doc Brown, that we could set the time machine to, where we could see the beginning of the universe. Supposing that it just always was, supposes likewise that there always will be, if the universe exists in the fourth dimension. No, the scientists project life-spans of stars, and so what is will eventually cease to be.

Thus, I suppose:

1) The universe has a finite beginning and and end
2) whatever exists had a cause
3) whatever causes something else is greater to or equal than the result
4) Supposing God is the only thing greater than the universe, He must be the cause.

This pattern proves corrollary to the Christian ideal of God being "the Alpha and the Omega: the beginning and the end." If God is the beginning and the end, he supercedes that what which is subject to beginning and ending, in this case, the universe. Therefore God exists, that the universe may have existence.

This brings up troubling questions about if God is infinite or finite. Both sides pose both affirmations of scripture and concerning implications. That will have to be an entry for another night.

Matt

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