Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Review of THE KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT by William Lane Craig

God's existence, as far as we know now, can never be definitively proven. Yet many have pointed out some compelling evidences throughout history that point in the direction of the existence of a God who created everything in the universe. Philosopher William Lane Craig has been one of the foremost apologists in arguing for the existence of God, and one that I have benefited greatly from in my own Christian journey. In THE KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT, Craig explores the history of what he believes to be one of the most compelling arguments for the existence of God. Interestingly enough,

I wasn't aware of the history of this argument and its development by some Islamic philosophers. In Part 1 of the book, Craig covers the history of the argument and shows that these Islamic philosophers were actually developing an argument that pointed to the existence of the God revealed in the Christian Bible. Part 2 is Craig's development and defense of the argument. The argument goes:

1. Everything that begins to exist must have a cause for its existence
2. The universe had a beginning
3. The universe had a cause for its existence

Craig seeks to argue the second premise that the universe did have a beginning. This part gets very technical as he argues from philosophical logic and appeals to scientific evidence. Basically, he argues that there cannot be an infinite regress of events in the past. There must have been a beginning point. He argues that the Big Bang represents the point at which God brought the world into existence.

THE KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT seems to be a pretty solid argument for God's existence. Though I know it won't convince everyone, I would suggest everyone read this book by William Lane Craig and many of his other works on the existence of God.

Review copy provided by Wipf and Stock

Photo Credit: Wipf and Stock

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