Preview

William Lane Craig Analysis

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1677 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
William Lane Craig Analysis
Megan Rohrberg
Professor William Honsberger
PHI 111 (sec 004)
12/15/15
Analysis of William Lane Craig’s The Existence of God and the Beginning of the Universe
The cosmological Argument for God states that
1. the universe began to exist
2. everything that begins to exist has a cause
3. Therefore, the universe must have a cause.
This argument has been subject to great applause through the religious community for its simplistic and impactful articulation. However the cosmological argument is also opposed by atheists who fail to find substance and empirical evidence within its core.
In his article, William lane Craig provides his perspective on the Kalam cosmological argument in the Existence of God and the beginning of the universe. Craig
…show more content…
So much so that what we currently know of physics and quantum effects may have been drastically different. Therefore we cannot estimate the effects all the way back at “time zero”. And if we could extrapolate back to time zero, it would only establish that the space-time of our universe had a beginning and wouldn’t give us any evidence toward the. Morriston also responds to the illustration of “Hilberts Hotel” claiming that unlike the fictional occupants in the hotel, mathematical objects cannot be “Moved” or occupy different locations, thus rendering the model unfit for application in the universe or “real-life”( …show more content…
Because we have no experience of an infinite and timeless being, how would one deny those attributes in regards to our universe? This is a common theme seen throughout Mackies and Morriston’s work; to claim that there is no “time before time” and if there was “nothing” before the creation of the universe, the universe could not have come into being in the first place thus suggesting that there was always “something”. Just that that something cannot be proven to be God. They believe the arguers in favor of the kalam argument should avoid the topic of something coming into existence out of absolute nothingness as it is a source of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    We are looking for evidence god exists, so we turned to an evidential argument in favor of God: the cosmological argument.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    On April 4, 2009 at Biola University, there was a debate regarding the existence of God between William Lane Craig and Christopher Hitchens. This debate was very interesting because both philosophers felt strongly about their opinion. William Lane Craig was first to speak and discussed his side of the debate very clearly. Craig stated that he believed in religion and philosophy. He also made it lucid that he believes that there are no good arguments that atheism is true, but there are a myriad of arguments that prove that theism is true.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The cosmological argument argues the existence of God since there had to be a creator of all things in nature that depend on something else for their existence. McCloskey’s idea is that the existence of the universe is not enough to confirm the existence of God. An argument that can be used against this statement is the non-temporal form of the cosmological argument. In the book “Philosophy of Religion” by Evans and Manis, the non-temporal form has three components. First there is some contingent beings exist (Evans and Manis, 69). The second component is that if any contingent being exist then a significant being must exist (69). Third, there must be the existence of a significant being (69). Furthermore, the cause of the universe is necessary because is important because without that development then there would be not existence of the contingent beings. Another claim by McCloskey is that the cosmological argument “does not entitle us to postulate an all-powerful, all-perfect, uncaused cause”; this statement is not necessarily true. Since the world around McCloskey does exist there must be an ultimate creator who created the universe and this creator is…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    They break down their argument into three different components, “Some contingent beings exist. If any contingent beings exist, then a necessary being must exist. Therefore there exists a necessary being” (Pg. 70). They explain that an infinite series is evidence to prove the contingent being exists. This presents an idea that there is no final explanation to this cause. To argue the statement by some atheist that claim that the world has always existed, they say that they do not make any claims about how old the universe which explains a universe that may have always…

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    ‘Why is there something rather than nothing?’ Assess whether the existence of the universe requires God as a first cause?…

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The teleological argument attempts to prove the existence of God by explaining that the world, in its seemingly perfect and ordered state could not have come about without the existence of a designer. The argument attempts to demonstrate that complexity, order and purpose are not attributes that can occur randomly, but must be implemented by a designer. By analogy, a form of induction, the argument compares the way the universe works, with its complex phenomena and intricacy, to that of an object, and in the case of William Paley, a watch. A watch has many different parts and shows all the marks of contrivance and design. Just as the existence of a watch implies a watchmaker, the existence of the world implies an even greater designer: God. We also do not need to know the purpose of the watch to infer a designer, simply that design implies a designer.…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The cosmological argument for the existence of God. .... The first thing to note about the cosmological argument is that it is A Posteriori. ....…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the most fascinating arguments for the existence of an all-perfect God is the ontological argument. While there are several different versions of the argument, all purport to show that it is self-contradictory to deny that there exists a greatest possible being. Thus, on this general line of argument, it is a necessary truth that such a being exists; and this being is the God of traditional Western theism. This article explains and evaluates classic and contemporary versions of the ontological argument.…

    • 172 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In their interview they discussed the issue of the Kalam cosmological argument. Craig went on to discuss the argument is the steps that follow. First whatever begins to exist has a cause. Second the universe had a beginning and third there universe, therefore had a cause. They then discussed several models that have been proposed trying to explain away the universe being finite. Craig ended the argument by saying “I think it’s indisputable that there has never been a time in history when the hard evidence of science was more confirmatory of belief in God than today.”…

    • 1574 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Teleological Argument

    • 2343 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Some theists of the Abrahamic persuasion claim that the harmony of the universe is proof of an intelligent designer. This argument is known as the teleological argument and has evolved from classical philosophy to modern theology. In addition, subscribers of the Abrahamic religions also hold that God has attributes that include omniscience, omnipotence, and benevolence. Fundamentally, God is all knowing, all-powerful, and all good. In contrast, God created a perfect universe that is in harmony, but occasionally practices miracles. Can the teleological argument, miracles, and God’s attributes coexist in a rational universe? This essay’s goal is…

    • 2343 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In fact McCloskey places the bar even lower by referring to the “proofs of” rather than “arguments for” God’s existence, thereby overstating the Theist’s claim. With respect to the “proofs” for God’s existence that McCloskey attempts to deal with, namely the Cosmological and Teleological Arguments, McCloskey offers trivial objections that are easily answered. With respect to arguments for God’s non-existence, McCloskey offers the logical form of the problem of evil which, while rich in rhetoric, does not contain enough logic to necessitate its title. McCloskey ends his article with a pragmatic justification of Atheist, stating that Atheism is more comforting that Theism; a point that is stark in its irrelevance.…

    • 2161 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evaluate the arguments for the existence of god There are three main philosophical arguments for the existence of god; the Teleological argument (also known as the design argument), made by William Paley, which presents the central idea that the universe is so complex, perfectly designed and purposeful that it must have had an intelligent designer, the Cosmological argument, made by Thomas Aquinas, which is based on the main idea that everything has a starting point so an uncaused god must have made/caused the universe, and the (entirely a priori) Ontological argument, made by Anselm, based on the main idea that god is perfect, and that existence is a predicate of perfection so therefore God must be real both in our minds and reality as he…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Big Bang itself is a scientific theory, and as such stands or falls by its agreement with observations. But as a theory which addresses the nature of the universe since its earliest discernible existence, the Big Bang carries possible theological implications regarding the concept of creation out of nothing. Many atheist philosophers have argued against the idea of the Universe having a beginning - the Universe might simply have existed for all eternity, but with the emerging evidence of the Big Bang theory, many theologians and physicists have viewed it as implicating theism; a popular philosophical argument for the existence of God known as the Kalām cosmological argument rests in the concepts of the Big Bang. In the 1920s and 1930s almost…

    • 172 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The cosmological argument proves the existence of God. It discusses contingent beings which exist, but could not have existed and necessary beings which exist and could not not exist. The cosmological says that there is a contingent being that exists. The existence of a contingent being must have a cause and the contingent being cannot be the cause of itself. The complete cause of a contingent being includes only other contingent beings or it includes a necessary being. Contingent beings alone cannot be the complete cause of a contingent being. The complete cause of a contingent being must include a necessary being. Therefore, a necessary being must exist. The cosmological argument shows that there must be a higher power, and that higher power is God. Everything that exists on earth is a contingent being. There is no person or animal that is not contingent. But what created everything to begin with if a contingent being cannot be the only cause of another contingent being? Everything on earth has a cause, but there must be a necessary being being that caused the Earth. There has to be something other than contingent beings. There has to be a necessary being that started everything. That necessary being is…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Philosophy Response Paper

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In McCloskey's article he states that "the mere existence of the world constitutes no reason for believing in such a being."{1} This appears to be his main issue with the cosmological argument. But Evans and Manis discuss a non-temporal form of the cosmological argument. They break down the non-temporal form into three different parts. The first one being that some contingent beings exist. Secondly, if any contingent beings exist, then a necessary being must exist. And thirdly, a necessary being does exist. I feel that they realize the issue that the absolute reoccurring of evidence proves a contingent being exists might give the idea that there is not a definitive reason to the cause. The cause of the universe is necessary because the cause is God, and God's existence is what is uncaused and absolute.…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays