"Why did the universe begin to exist?": On Guard Class 4 Recap

Answer: God! On Monday October 20th we met for our fourth class to discuss "Why did the universe begin to exist?" from the fourth chapter of On Guard. The argument in this chapter formed the second in our four-part case that we'll build for the existence of God. The argument goes like this: Whatever begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore the universe has a cause. Before we dove into the discussion on this argument we reviewed the last argument for the existence for God: the Leibniz Cosmological Argument. The main difference between the two arguments is in the beginningness of the universe. Hypothetically, if it is past eternal, then you can't use this week's argument, since it depends on the universe beginning to exist, but you can still use our last argument since even the hypothetical past eternal universe demands an explanation for its existence. But, as we saw from this week's topic, we have good reasons to think that the universe is not past eternal.

When assessing the plausibility of the premises in our arguments it's helpful to view the premises as on a scale with the true-premise on one side of the scale and the false-premise on the other side. Which one has the most weight to it to tip the scales? In terms of the first premise the the dilemma is between "whatever begins to exist" vs. something like "some things that begin to exist have no cause."

It is much more plausible that "whatever begins to exist has a cause" is true compared to its negation. Why? Well for at least three reasons: Something cannot come from nothing: nothing is... well nothing! From nothing nothing comes. Otherwise anything and everything could come from nothing: to think that only universes come from nothing but everything else that begins to exist has a cause is to commit the taxicab fallacy again. Experience confirms the truth: we live day-to-day based on the understanding that things that begin to exist have a cause; the entire scientific enterprise is built on this! In terms of the second premise we were able to use four lines of evidence to support that the universe began to exist: two philosophical reasons and two scientific reasons. First Philosophical Argument: An Actually Infinite Number of Things Cannot Exist. Second Philosophical Argument: A Series Formed Successively Cannot Be Actually Infinite. First Scientific Argument: The Expansion of the Universe Second Scientific Argument: The Thermodynamics of the Universe The pain you feel in your head when you try to comprehend actual infinites is normal it indicates the absurdity of an actual infinite number of things (e.g. past events, hotel rooms, money). This is a nice 60-second recap of the absurd situation known as Hilbert's Hotel. The Big Bang Theory says that our universe is actually expanding, space is stretching out. So we can infer that to mean that the universe came into existence at some point in the past. Similarly the Second Law of Thermodynamics shows that we are running out of useable energy in the universe and so the universe had to have had a beginning, otherwise we should be out of energy by now! All of this goes to show that the universe has a cause. What can we know about that cause? Well, it must be: Timeless– because the Cause transcends time Spaceless – because the Cause transcends space Changeless – because the Cause is timeless Immaterial – because the Cause is changeless Unimaginably Powerful – because it created all matter, energy, space, and time Personal – because it is like a mind such that it is causal and because only a free agent can account for a temporal effect from a timeless effect What shall we call such a cause? God.

Check out this great video summarizing the Kalam Cosmological Argument (click the picture)

The presentation from Monday is available digitally on the website here. Next time we will meet on November 3rd, same place, same time, to discuss the topic "Why is the universe fine-tuned for life?" Please read through chapter 5 before then and jot down some answers to the homework questions for discussion next time we meet. If you have any questions or thoughts along the way, please feel free to shoot me an email. Also consider inviting a friend, all are welcome!