Does God Exist? The Kalam Cosmological Argument

While the Kalam Cosmological Argument has been around for centuries, it is primarily through the work and efforts of Dr. William Lane Craig that it has become one of the most powerful arguments for the existence of God in recent years. The argument does not prove the Christian God of the Bible, but is often used in a cumulative case for the existence of God by starting with the idea of showing the existence of a First Cause.

This argument gives us a good deal of insight into the nature and attributes of this First Cause. Today, I will cover the basic syllogism of the argument, discuss the premises individually and finally talk about how this argument can give us information about what sort of First Cause the argument shows to exist.

Does God Exist? The Thomistic Cosmological Argument

I know that everyone is probably tired of hearing about cosmological arguments. You hear people discussing them by the water cooler at work and at neighborhood barbecues and such. Well, maybe not.

The basic construction of the Thomistic Cosmological Argument goes something like this:

1. What we observe in this universe is contingent (i.e. dependent, or conditional)
2. A sequence of causally related contingent things cannot be infinite
3. The sequence of causally dependent contingent things must be finite

Conclusion: There must be a first cause in the sequence of contingent causes.