THE KALAM ARGUMENT OF WILLIAM LANE CRAIG

 
This is William Lane Craig's Kalam argument for a personal creator God -

Whatever begins to exist has a cause

The universe began to exist
 
Conclusion: The universe has a cause.
 
Next argument:

The universe has a cause

If the universe has a cause

 

A creator of some kind exists.

 

This creator is without beginning.  It which cannot change for that which changes can begin to change itself but we are saying we don't need it to have a begin of any kind or form.  It is not subject to time.  It is eternal which means it is unchanging and past and present and future do not relate to it. 

 

If it is a personal creator then this being spans the universe and is not a material being.

Therefore it is reasonable to suppose that:

An uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists, who spans the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless and enormously powerful.

 

This does not claim to prove this kind of creator exists but to show it is sensible to suppose it does.  You can regard it as proven that there was a cause even if you can't say what it is.

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THE OBJECTIONS
 
The Kalam Argument is no good to science for there is no way to test anything it says to any extent.  Science cannot prove that there was a beginning.  Perhaps one day we will be able to show through science that it all really did have a beginning. But we have to avoid a wait and see attitude for that would lead you to waiting to see something that is proven true proven false.

 

It is only an argument for belief and not a proof so Craig is not saying it is necessarily true. It could be that God is too big or great to be simply believed in and we need proof. Belief is too much about me and what I think. That is the problem with belief. If there is a God then how do we make it about God? Worshipping the God I believe in and the God that is there is two separate things.
 
Kalam assumes the universe began to exist. What if something eternal was turned into the universe meaning that the universe in a sense always existed?
 
It assumes that we know all about logic. We do not. There could be a logical reason we cannot think of why a creator cannot be personal.
 
It assumes creation is coherent. Creation leaves God unchanged. All that is changed is that where there was not anything at all now there is something. God simply tells it to exist. That is magic. Creation is the worst theory about the origins of all things. Because the terminology is that God made all things from nothing it doesn't seem so bad. But in fact where there is nothing to make from there is no making at all.
 
It assumes that a timeless God can do things. What if there is some logical reason why he can not? What if there is a logical reason why he cannot make anything other than personal beings? In that case, the existence of stones would refute God. The Christian God expects us to believe there is some logical reason we cannot even guess at why he lets so much innocent suffering happen. The notion then that there are unknown logical reasons for things is not a problem for a believer.
 
It assumes that the creator is personal which is cheating for even the classical Christian view of God does not give us anything like another person though it is called a person. For example, God knows all things past and present and future so he cannot be surprised or have a sense of humour. That is nothing we can relate to. It is not a person in any way that can appeal to us.
 
If you have a choice, what will you go for? The personality of God or his power to create? The personality if you value love and feel God is a loving being. A person loving you is more important than a person looking after your interests mechanically without love. The creator thing will matter to you if you just care about existing and what you are going to get out of the creator. How do these principles affect the kalam? If you want love then it does not matter that God is God but all that matters is that there is a loving person there. God being God does not matter. To say he does not matter is to contradict the definition of God which is a being that matters totally and ultimately. The creator thing would
 
God is that which alone matters. But if you had a choice and it had to be one or the other, would you save a dying baby for his own sake or for God's? If you are human it will be about the baby. This is the easiest way to prove that even if there is a creator he cannot be God to you. Proving a creator and proving God then is not the same thing.
 
And it assumes that there is one creator. Craig says if you use Occam's Razor one God would do. You don't need to wonder if there is a pile of Gods when one would explain.  That is not a very strong way to affirm monotheism which allegedly is a vital and important concept!

 

There is more to worry about than trying to explain that the universe had an origin and what gave it an origin.

 

People have other concerns that call for explanation too.  Suffering can and will feel more real to you than anything else so what about that? 

 

The Razor does not decree that there is only one God.  It warns that you don't need anything else that is all.  But surely that is permitting you to assume another God too?  What would the big deal be?

 

It gets worse if you agree with Christianity that it is possible for there to be one God, who is one being and yet more than one.  They say he is three persons.  But what if he is one person and there are two other intelligences that are impersonal?  That would mean that even if there is a God you can still say the universe was not created by a person.

 

If you think God touches you, remember that it could be some rather good natured but proud creature that wants you to think that that is touching you.  What if God exists and some being we cannot call a God is what is engaging with us? Perhaps we cannot call it a person at all?  As we are so limited, it does not take much for that being to seem like a god to us.

 

The moral argument for God supposes that we need to believe in God or we need there to be a God to validate moral concepts such as justice and love. Kalam refutes moral arguments for it gives rise to deliberate lies.  This conflict shows that if there is a God then it is not a God who is morally interesting.

 

APPENDIX: BACKTRACKING COUNTERFACTUAL AND THE KALAM

 

1 Time travel is impossible for you cannot go back in time to kill your father when he was a baby

 

2  But if the universe lets you go back to meet him but stops you killing him there is no contradiction

 

3  Cause is full of paradoxes and mystery

 

Therefore we should avoid attempts to use God as an explanation for being the start of the universe for we are stuck with saying, its paradoxes and mystery so we don't know what we are talking about
 
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