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On Non-Singular Space-times and the Beginning of the Universe

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Scientific Approaches to the Philosophy of Religion

Part of the book series: Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion ((PFPR))

Abstract

The most widely discussed argument for the existence of God is the so-called kalam cosmological argument, which originated in attempts on the part of certain ancient philosophers to rebut Aristotle’s doctrine of the past eternity of the universe.1 The argument assumed major importance in medieval Islamic theology, from which its name derives. In his Kitab al-Iqtisad the medieval Muslim theologian al-Ghazali presented the following simple syllogism in support of the existence of a Creator: ‘Every being which begins has a cause for its beginning; now the world is a being which begins; therefore, it possesses a cause for its beginning’ (1962, pp. 15–16). In defence of the second premise, Ghazali offered various philosophical arguments to show the impossibility of an infinite regress of temporal phenomena and, hence, of an infinite past. The limit at which the finite past terminates Ghazali calls ‘the Eternal’ (1963, p. 32), which he evidently takes to be a state of timelessness. Given the truth of the first premise, the finite past must, therefore, ‘stop at an eternal being from which the first temporal being should have originated’ (1963, p. 33).

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Authors
  1. William Lane Craig
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  2. James D. Sinclair
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  1. University of Birmingham, UK

    Yujin Nagasawa

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© 2012 William Lane Craig and James D. Sinclair

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Craig, W.L., Sinclair, J.D. (2012). On Non-Singular Space-times and the Beginning of the Universe. In: Nagasawa, Y. (eds) Scientific Approaches to the Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137026019_6

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