The Kalam Cosmological Argument and the Oak Tree in my Yard
The Kalam Cosmological Argument
Premise 1: Whatever begins to exist has a cause of its existence.
The oak tree in my yard began to exist. What is the cause of its existence?
The tree grew from an acorn, so we can say the acorn caused the tree to exist.
But an acorn isn’t a tree; soil and water and sunlight are also needed.
So, we can say the cause of the tree is the acorn, the soil, the water, and sunlight.
Already, we see Premise 1 fails in that the tree does not have “a” cause of its existence.
Rather, it has multiple causes.
Moreover, we can continue indefinitely.
Acorn, soil, water, and sunlight floating free in space won’t cause a tree.
So, we can add Earth’s gravity to the causes.
To continue, suppose the acorn had originally fallen on a rock but some squirrel happened to knock it off, onto fertile soil. So, we can add the squirrel to the list of causes.
But if we change Premise 1 to “Whatever begins to exist has one or more causes of its existence,” then the Kalam fails to prove a single cause for the universe. If there are multiple causes, do we want to conclude that Gods may have created the universe?
In any event, the Kalam as it’s usually presented has a flawed Premise 1. The argument is a “Kalam”ity.
Comments (9)
Oh Jeez :rofl:
If we use this alternate premise, we can still get one cause by applying Occam's razor. Simpler explanations are better all else being equal, so there is only one cause unless we have reason to think there's more. With the tree, we have reasons to think there's more. With the universe, we don't.
Kalam 2 has some problems (which it shares with the original Kalam) but that would be the subject of another post so as not to divert this post.
Again, brother Agent: :clap:
The water, nutritionionionians, Sunlight, can be compared with the quantum vacuum. But it takes me or thou to provide them. Likewise it takes gods to provide...
:smile:
You've deliberately lowered your IQ to participate in TPF haven't you? :snicker:
:lol:
A necessary but sufficient adjustment! With you I go fully fledged though! :love:
Aren’t necessary conditions a subset of sufficient conditions?
Isn’t the same true for necessary and sufficient causes?
Think about it and let me know if you disagree.