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THE KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT: CRITIQUING A RECENT DEFENCE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2021

Phillip Halper
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Abstract

In the late 1970s the big bang model of cosmology was widely accepted and interpreted as implying the universe had a beginning. At the end of that decade William Lane Craig revived an argument for God known as the Kalam Cosmological Argument (KCA) based on this scientific consensus. Furthermore, he linked the big bang to the supposed biblical concept of creation ex nihilo found in Genesis. I shall critique Craig's position as expressed in a more recent update and argue that contemporary cosmology no longer understands the big bang as the ultimate beginning, seriously undermining the KCA. I will further contend that book of Genesis should not be understood as describing creation ex nihilo anyway.

Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 20 , Issue 57 , Spring 2021 , pp. 153 - 165
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Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy, 2021

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References

Notes

1 Craig, William Lane, ‘Creation Ex Nihilo: Theology and Science’, in Daniel, Ray and Paul Gould (eds.) The Story of the Cosmos: How the Heavens Declare the Glory of God (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers; Workbook edition, 16 July 2019)Google Scholar.

2 <http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6135-firmament>.

3 Craig concedes this in the essay I review here, see n. 1.

4 John Barrow, ‘Does Infinity Exist?’, <https://plus.maths.org/content/does-infinity-exist>.

5 See NASA's WMAP website: <https://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/7yr_release.html> and here: <https://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_cosmo_infl.html>.

6 <http://news.mit.edu/2014/3-q-alan-guth-on-new-insights-into-the-big-bang>.

7 For a thorough discussion of eternal inflation see: Guth, Alan H., ‘Eternal Inflation and its Implications’, Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical 40(25) (2007): 6811–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 See interview with Alan H. Guth here: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqjsZEZMR7I&t=2005s>.

9 See interview with Alex Vilenkin here: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CChnwOsg9I&list=PLJ4zAUPI-qqqj2D8eSk7yoa4hnojoCR4m>.

10 For example, Julian Barbour, Tim Koslowski and Flavio Mercati, ‘Janus Points and Arrows of Time’, <https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.03956>.

11 <http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2015/03/20/guest-post-don-page-on-god-and-cosmology/>.

12 <https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/reasonable-faith-podcast/black-holes-and-the-arrow-of-time/>.

13 <https://www.reasonablefaith.org/question-answer/P130/the-triumph-of-lorentz>.

14 Vilenkin, Alex, Many Worlds in One (New York: Hill and Wang, 2007)Google Scholar.

15 All of the quotes in this paragraph can be found in the following film: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7kvjTRW-tw&t=183s>.

16 Craig in n. 1 is quoting Aguirre, Anthony and Kehayias, John, ‘Quantum Instability of the Emergent Universe’, Physical Review 88 (2013): 103504Google Scholar.

17 See Anthony Aguirre, ‘Eternal Inflation, Past and Future’, <https://arxiv.org/abs/0712.0571>.

18 Nomura, Yasunori, ‘Static Quantum Multiverse’, Physical Review 86 (2012): 083505Google Scholar. See here for Susskind, Leonard, ‘Was There a Beginning?’, <https://arxiv.org/abs/1204.5385>.

19 <https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.01236>.

20 Aron C. Wall, ‘The Generalized Second Law Implies a Quantum Singularity Theorem’, Classical and Quantum Gravity 30(16) (2013): 165003.

21 <http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2014/02/24/post-debate-reflections/>.

22 <https://www.edge.org/response-detail/25538>.

23 For a layperson's discussion of this in Loop Quantum Cosmology, see: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9jYH5VIF9E&t=2138s>. And here in Penrose's cyclic model: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVDJJVoTx7s&t=481s>.

24 <http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2015/03/20/guest-post-don-page-on-god-and-cosmology/>.

25 Vilenkin, Alex, ‘Creation of Universes from Nothing’, Physics Letters B, 117(1–2) (1982): 25–8.

26 Sean M. Carroll, ‘What if Time Really Exists?’, <https://arxiv.org/abs/0811.3772>.