The Kalām Cosmological Argument

by William Lane Craig

Does God exist? Of the many ongoing debates to answer this question, William Craig examines one of the most controversial proofs for the existence of God; the Kalam cosmological argument. Dr. Craig provides a broad assessment of the argument in lieu of recent developments in philosophy, mathematics, science and theology.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Theology, Christian, Science, Islam, Metaphysics

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

William Lane Craig is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He and his wife Jan have two grown children.

At the age of sixteen as a junior in high school, he first heard the message of the Christian gospel and yielded his life to Christ. Dr. Craig pursued his undergraduate studies at Wheaton College (B.A. 1971) and graduate studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.A. 1974; M.A. 1975), the University of Birmingham (England) (Ph.D. 1977), and the University of Munich (Germany) (D.Theol. 1984). From 1980-86 he taught Philosophy of Religion at Trinity, during which time he and Jan started their family. In 1987 they moved to Brussels, Belgium, where Dr. Craig pursued research at the University of Louvain until assuming his position at Talbot in 1994.

He has authored or edited over thirty books, including The Kalam Cosmological Argument; Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus; Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom; Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology; and God, Time and Eternity, as well as over a hundred articles in professional journals of philosophy and theology, including The Journal of Philosophy, New Testament Studies, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, American Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy, and British Journal for Philosophy of Science.

Reviews

[Amora · Rating 3 out of 5]

The arguments presented here are quite dated, but this book was a good read nonetheless. Dr. Craig presents his own formulation of the kalam cosmological argument and defends each premise with interesting thought experiments. The syllogism presented by Dr. Craig is intuitive, but my issue with this book is that Dr. Craig doesn’t delve into whether the cause of the universe is omniscient, omnipotent, and all-good. In fact, he states in the book that this is not something he will be delving into. That for me brings the book to 3 stars.

[Curby Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book that reintroduced the Kalam Cosmological Argument to the philosophical and apologetic world. Excellent book - part of the math were beyond me so skipped some portions. The only complaint I have is that I would like to see this fully updated. This was published in 1979 and there have been numerous objections brought up to it. Craig I think has satisfactorily answered them in other works and on his site. But it would be useful to have that material added as well as updates on further evidence for the Big Bang.

[Moh. Nasiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Kalam Cosmological Argument
برهان کیهانی کلام
Does God exist? Of the many ongoing debates to answer this question, William Craig examines one of the most controversial proofs for the existence of God; "the Kalam cosmological argument". Dr. Craig provides a broad assessment of the argument in lieu of recent developments in philosophy, mathematics, science and theology.
ویلیام لن کریگ فیلسوف معاصر آمریکایی است که در سالهای گذشته کوشیده است تا به کمک نظریه‌های جدید کانتور و نظریه فیزیک «مهبانگ»، تبیین تازه‌ای از برهان جهان‌شناختی ارایه دهد. وی برهان خویش را «برهان جهان‌شناختی کلام» می‌نامد که تبیینی جدید از برهان مسلمانانی همچون کندی است. او می‌کوشد حدوث زمانی عالم و نیاز به خداوند به عنوان علت محدثه را اثبات کند
ویدئو زیر با بررسی برخی اکتشافات علمی این برهان را اثبات می کند

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkLrj...
https://www.reasonablefaith.org/kalam
مقاله فارسی بررسی این برهان
https://jpht.ut.ac.ir/article_30278_4...

[Aileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is part of my research on logical and critical thinking studies. (kalam vs kant) It widened my knowledge to give reasons to do, argue, believe on facts, evidence and to think critically. From this book, I identify and avoid common thinking mistakes that lead to the formation of bad beliefs, learning how to tell when an argument is sound, cogent and how to evaluate it. But this book is missing something..where is the part two (latest) of this publication or argument. I love the content to be explored further.

[Lina Tae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as a part of my thesis research. Usually such books are hard to follow because of the writing style. But I was surprised to find this book was really easy to follow. It was really an interesting read.

[Brian Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic in natural theology. Everyone studying any cosmological argument should read this.

[Juris Arrozy · Rating 5 out of 5]

No more words needed. Dr. Craig is a genius.

[Norman Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit esoteric but an extremely interesting proof of how potential and actual infinity really matter in modern philosophical argumentation.

[Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most interesting philosophy book I've read so far.

[Ryker Peene]

Audaciously misguided

[George]

I like that

[Matt Statter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid defence of theism based on philosophy and empirical science. This book began with the history of the Kalam showing how the Kalam developed their reasoning by adopting aristotelian principles. A big part of the book focuses on the second premiss: "the universe began to exist" and sets about showing how an infinite regress must be an actual infinite and shows how this is an absurd reality. Although the general principle is very simple I found the maths (set theory) bit difficult to get my head around. The book ended, with Kant's Antinomy which I felt was undeservedly consigned to an appendix. The finitude of this book was it's only disappointment, I wanted it to go on indefinitely but I'd never have reached it's conclusion.

[Hamdanil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quite well written book arguing for the existence of the Creator. The argument stems from from a line of argument proposed by early Islamic philosophers (hence "Kalam" in the book title). The author explained the argument given by these philosophers and a bit of history around them as well. Then the author provides his own formulation of the arguments, which makes up most of the book. In general I find it well-argued, and for most part accessible with a bit of basic philosophy knowledge and checking with Wikipedia. However, there are some philosophical discussions that are difficult to follow, and also discussion using mathematics, physics and astronomy which seem to be outside the authors' expertise and need to be confirmed by checking independent sources.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent source for the modern version of this argument. The appendices on infinity machines, Zeno's paradoxes and Kant's antinomies are worth the price of the book, in my opinion. Covers the history of the argument from ancient sources to medieval Muslim thinkers through today.

Included are two philosophical arguments and several scientific arguments for the beginning of the universe.

[Michael T Moos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things that begin to exist are caused to exist.
The universe began to exist.
The universe was caused to exist.

These three simply put proofs are the topic of over 150 pages with around 50 pages of references to other sources and notes. Dr. Craig has done his homework and has exhausted this argument thoroughly. Great addition to any shelf.

[Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro con un bien hecho y fundamentado, filosofía analítica pura. Aunque creo que fracasa en su panorama analítico del mundo, me parece un libro que vale la pena leer en el ámbito filosófico moderno y ontoteologico.

[Kyle Deming · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.skepticalchristian.com/br_...