The Kalām Cosmological Argument
| Author | William Lane Craig |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Kalam cosmological argument |
| Publisher | Barnes & Noble, New York |
|
Publication date
|
1979 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 216 |
| ISBN |
The Kalām Cosmological Argument is a 1979 book by William Lane Craig, in which the author offers a contemporary defense of the Kalām cosmological argument and purports to establish the existence of God based upon the alleged metaphysical impossibility of an infinite regress of past events. According to Craig, given that an infinite temporal regress is metaphysically impossible and that everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence. In a further analysis Craig discloses that this cause is a personal creator who changelessly and independently willed the beginning of the universe.
The book is divided into two parts.
Part I provides a brief history of the Kalām cosmological argument as stated by the Kalām tradition, with special attention to al-Kindi, Saadia and al-Ghāzāli. Part II moves to defend in length the substance of the argument.
Following Al-Ghāzāli, Craig argues that this cause must be a personal will.
Argument based on the impossibility of an actual infinite:
Argument based on the impossibility of the formation of an actual infinite by successive addition:
The first is that a) an actual infinite cannot exist in the real world; and b) an infinite temporal series is such an actual infinite.
The second is that a temporal series cannot be an actual infinite, assuming than an actual infinite can exist in the real world, because: a) a temporal series is a collection formed by successive addition; and b) a collection formed by successive addition cannot be an actual infinite.
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