1. Kalam Cosmological Argument

2. Defenders
Al-Ghazali ( CE)
William Lane Craig (1949 -)

3. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
The universe began to exist.
Therefore, the universe has a cause.

4. Premise 1 – Whatever begins to exist has a cause:
Something cannot come from nothing.
I ask, “What brought into existence this classroom?”
The classroom could not have brought itself into existence.
And since “nothing” is, well, nothing—not anything—it has no property or power.
If something could come into being from nothing, then just anything or everything could.
Experience and science confirm the truth of premise 1. Cannot deny that 1 is more plausibly true than false in light of the evidence.

5. Premise 2 – The universe began to exist:
Philosophical Argument 1: An Actually Infinite Number of Things Cannot Exist
If the universe never began to exist, then the number of past events prior to today would be actually infinite. But that’s impossible.
Now a potential infinite number of things is possible. But an actually infinite number of things is not.
Potentially infinity is not a defined number; it is a collection that grows in time.
Example: the future has a potentially infinite number of days. You can always add one more, but never reach the “infinitieth” day that complete the series.
Actual infinity is a complete collection, like a mathematical set. But in the physical world it does not exist.

6. Imagine a hotel with an actually infinite number of rooms occupied.
A new guest needs a room. Manager moves person in room 1 into room 2, person in room 2 into room #3…to infinity. Now room 1 is vacant. But before guest arrived, all the rooms were already full! And now the number of guests is the same!
An infinite number of guests arrive. Manager moves guest in room 1 into room 2, guest in room 2 into room 4, 3 into 6…to infinity. Now all odd-numbered rooms are vacant.
What if all guests in even-numbered rooms check out? Since the number of remaining guests is infinite, you still have an infinite number of guests in the hotel—even though an infinite number of guests just checked out!
What if guests in rooms numbers higher than 4 check out? Now only 3 guests are left in the hotel! This is an absurdity.
Conclusion – No actually infinite number of things can exist. The universe is a collection of things. Thus, the universe had a beginning.

7. Philosophical Argument 2: An Actually Infinite Number of Things Cannot Be Created by adding one thing after another
This should be obvious: By adding one coin after another you will never reach the “infinitieth” coin, that is, the last coin that will complete your collection and make it actually infinite.
You can always add one more.
Furthermore, if there is no first event of the universe, then it would take forever to reach the present time.
It would take forever to reach any time in the history of the universe!
Conclusion: A collection of actually infinite number of things cannot be formed by adding one thing after another.
Consequently, the universe has a beginning (a first event).

8. Argument 3: Scientific Argument: The Big Bang Theory
In 1929, Edwin Hubble discovered that same galaxies were redder (this is the Red Light Shift) indicating that the universe is expanding.
If it is expanding, it must have come from a centralized point in the past (this is the singularity).
Thus, 13.8 billion years ago, a singularity expanded in every direction and space-and-time was created, that is, the universe.
Therefore, the universe began to exist.

9. Alternate Models
Steady State: The universe is stationary. In 1965, Penzias & Wilson discovered a Background radiation.
Oscillating: The universe is like a rubber band. (A) Disorder is carried over between oscillations, (B) Observations show that the current universe will not collapse but expand forever.
Bubble Universes: Our universe is just a bubble in a much larger “multiverse” of bubble universes. But the multiverse as a whole must have a beginning.
Quantum Models:
Quantum Model: Universes springing out of an eternal quantum vacuum. But the quantum vacuum, like our universe, cannot be eternal. Also, given an infinite time, by now universes would have collided with each other.
Hartle-Hawking model: By using imaginary numbers, Hawking eliminates the singularity, therefore the difference between space and time. Time thus is the analogue of a sphere, which has no beginning. However, imaginary numbers are not accurate descriptions of reality.

10. Conclusion 3 – Therefore, the universe has a cause:
Whether you like it or not, science and philosophy show that the universe has a cause.
Okay, fine! The universe has a cause. But what can we know about this cause?

11. The nature of the cause:
The cause must be:
Uncaused Timeless Spaceless Immaterial, non physical Powerful enough to create all matter and energy Personal

12. Why Personal?
Cannot be an abstract object or an energy or a force or a law or unembodied mind.
Such entities don’t stand in causal relations.
If the cause is sufficient to produce its effect, then if the cause is present then the effect MUST be present too.
Water freezes when it’s 0 degrees Celsius. If it’s been 0 from eternity, then water would be frozen from eternity.
If temperature changes, what’s the cause?
Personal cause has a mind and freedom of the will to decide when to bring the universe into existence.
It is the only explanation why the cause is eternally present but the effect finite.

13. Conclusion
Craig Concludes that, “Amazing as it may seem, the most plausible answer to the question of why something exists rather than nothing is that God exists.” (Craig, 73)