Tuesday, August 2, 2016

The Kalam Cosmological Argument

Here at The Cumulative Case, we are working towards developing the case for God's existence (and specifically the Christian God) from several different lines of argument.  In this post, I will introduce the Kalam Cosmological argument, as popularized by apologist Dr. William Lane Craig.

(Note I have already talked about it in previous posts, such as here, but will introduce it anew.)

This is a philosophical/logical argument, whose premises are based on evidence from both science and philosophy.  It is set up as a syllogism, so if the first two premises are true, the conclusion logically follows.  The syllogism goes like this:
  1. Everything that comes into being has a cause.
  2. The universe came into being.
  3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

In the Multiverse, Are You Just a Brain?

The idea of there being multiple, parallel universes "out there" sounds pretty cool.  But does this really make sense?  Many atheists would say yes, perhaps because it helps to avoid the conclusion that God created our universe.  In particular, it looks like our universe is exquisitely designed for the existence of life.  But if we're one of many, many universes out there, then there's bound to be one like ours that can support life, right?

Well, yes, maybe, but as we'll see, punting to the multiverse proves too much.  In essence: if there are so many other worlds out there that can be appealed to in order to explain improbable events, then anything, no matter how crazy sounding, can happen.  In particular, it should lead you to believe that only you exist.