A swift and simple refutation of the Kalam cosmological argument?

1999 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLIAM LANE CRAIG
Keyword(s):  
Big Bang ◽  
Cosmological Argument ◽  
Convincing Argument ◽  
Realist Position ◽  
Big Bang Theory ◽  
Simple Demonstration ◽  
Kalam Cosmological Argument ◽  
John Taylor ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

John Taylor complains that the Kalam cosmological argument gives the appearance of being a swift and simple demonstration of the existence of a Creator of the universe, whereas in fact a convincing argument involving the premiss that the universe began to exist is very difficult to achieve. But Taylor's proffered defeaters of the premisses of the philosophical arguments for the beginning of the universe are themselves typically undercut due to Taylor's inadvertence to alternatives open to the defender of the Kalam arguments. With respect to empirical confirmation of the universe's beginning Taylor is forced into an anti-realist position on the Big Bang theory, but without sufficient warrant for singling out the theory as non-realistic. Therefore, despite the virtue of simplicity of form, the Kalam cosmological argument has not been defeated by Taylor's all too swift refutation.

scholarly journals Cosmological argument for a/theism: Craig's and Smith's interpretation of big bang cosmology

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-97
Author(s):  
Drago Djuric
Keyword(s):  
Big Bang ◽  
Main Issue ◽  
Cosmological Argument ◽  
William Lane Craig ◽  
Kalam Cosmological Argument ◽  
Kalām Cosmological Argument ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

In this paper we shall consider over 30-Years larg disscusion between theistic philosopher of religion William Lane Craig and athestic philosopher Quentin Smith about kalam cosmological argument and big bang cosmological hypothesis. Main issue of their's disscusion is the problem of the cause of the beginnig of the universe. Craig tries to give us arguments for the thesis that the big bang cosmology is compatible with the his kalam kosmological argument, and, consenquently, that God is cause of the big bang. Smith but tries to give us the arguments for the thesis that the kalam cosmological argument is not sound, and that cause of the big bang is not God. At the beginnig of the discussion Smith has defended thesis that big bang has no cause. Lather but he defends the thesis that the universe is self-caused. During this larg and intensive discussion are developed interesting arguments, some of which we shall present here.

THE KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT: CRITIQUING A RECENT DEFENCE

Think ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (57) ◽  
pp. 153-165
Author(s):  
Phillip Halper
Keyword(s):  
Big Bang ◽  
Cosmological Argument ◽  
William Lane Craig ◽  
Kalam Cosmological Argument ◽  
Kalām Cosmological Argument ◽  
Big Bang Model ◽  
Ex Nihilo ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

ABSTRACTIn the late 1970s the big bang model of cosmology was widely accepted and interpreted as implying the universe had a beginning. At the end of that decade William Lane Craig revived an argument for God known as the Kalam Cosmological Argument (KCA) based on this scientific consensus. Furthermore, he linked the big bang to the supposed biblical concept of creation ex nihilo found in Genesis. I shall critique Craig's position as expressed in a more recent update and argue that contemporary cosmology no longer understands the big bang as the ultimate beginning, seriously undermining the KCA. I will further contend that book of Genesis should not be understood as describing creation ex nihilo anyway.

Creation and conservation, religious doctrine of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Hasker
Keyword(s):  
Big Bang ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Religious Doctrine ◽  
Big Bang Theory ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Ex Nihilo ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

The doctrine of the creation of the universe by God is common to the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; reflection on creation has been most extensively developed within the Christian tradition. Creation is by a single supreme God, not a group of deities, and is an ‘absolute’ creation (creation ex nihilo, ‘out of nothing’) rather than being either a ‘making’ out of previously existing material or an ‘emanation’ (outflow) from God’s own nature. Creation, furthermore, is a free act on God’s part; he has no ‘need’ to create but has done so out of love and generosity. He not only created the universe ‘in the beginning’, but he sustains (‘conserves’) it by his power at each moment of its existence; without God’s support it would instantly collapse into nothingness. It is controversial whether the belief in divine creation receives support from contemporary cosmology, as seen in the ‘Big Bang’ theory.

Big Bang Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Y. Heimburger
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Mechanistic Model ◽  
Albert Einstein ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Scientific Model ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Big Bang Theory ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

The Big Bang theory is a scientific model of the universe that posits a state of dense, centralized matter before the current, observable expansion of the universe in one giant explosion. While ‘the Big Bang’ was a phrase first used somewhat facetiously by British astronomer Fred Hoyle in 1949, it rested on earlier theories and observations by George Lamaitre, Albert Einstein, and Edwin Hubble. The implications of Big Bang theory have been far-reaching. For some, the Big Bang’s suggestion of a ‘beginning of time’ lent itself to familiar religious teleology. For others, it provided a rigid, mechanistic model of the physical world, which in turn affected ideas in the social sciences and humanities. This is not to say that Big Bang theory was a ‘grand unifying theory’—even in the 1920s, the rather precise predictions of Einstein’s theories of relativity conflicted with the conclusions of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and quantum mechanics. Still, the idea that the physical world exists due to the violent expansion (and subsequent contraction) of matter suggests a rather small place for humanity in the larger scheme of things. There is little room or need for free will in such a system—at least when it comes to matters of large-scale significance. Today, the Big Bang often stands as a euphemism for debates over God and human determinism in the universe, and lends itself to philosophic traditions such as nihilism and existentialism.

Steady-State theory and the cosmological controversy

2019 ◽  
pp. 161-205
Author(s):  
Helge Kragh
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Steady State Model ◽  
Big Bang Theory ◽  
Big Bang Model ◽  
Fred Hoyle ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe ◽  
State Universe

The presently accepted big-bang model of the universe emerged during the period 1930-1970, following a road that was anything but smooth. By 1950 the essential features of the big-bang theory were established by George Gamow and his collaborators, and yet the theory failed to win recognition. A major reason was that the big-bang picture of the evolving universe was challenged by the radically different picture of a steady-state universe favoured by Fred Hoyle and others. By the late 1950s there was no convincing reason to adopt one theory over the other. Out of the epic controversy between the two incompatible world models arose our modern view of the universe. Although the classical steady-state model was abandoned in the mid-1960s, attempts to modify it can be followed up to the present.

Fang Lizhi's Expanding Universe

1990 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
pp. 459-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Blackbody Radiation ◽  
Tensor Theory ◽  
Big Bang Theory ◽  
The University ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The U.S

During an interview in September 1986, some three years prior to seeking political asylum with his wife at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Fang Lizhi was asked how he felt about the progress of political reform in China. Fang responded, “I must start with cosmology in answering this question.”Fang's linkage of politics with cosmology – a branch of astrophysics concerned with the origins of the universe – must seem peculiar to those who know him only as a human rights advocate and critic of the Chinese Communist Party. Yet this was no idiosyncrasy on Fang's part. Fang's life and published work from the early 1970s to the present leave no doubt that his emergence as the symbolic leader of China's democracy movement is deeply rooted in his experiences and outlook as a scientist.Fang's personal universe began to expand in 1972, when he and his colleagues at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) published a paper in Physica entitled “A Solution of the cosmological equations in scalar-tensor theory, with mass and blackbody radiation.” This innocuous-sounding article met with a furious response from leading theoretical circles of the Party. Fang et al. had broken a long-standing taboo by introducing the Big Bang theory to the Chinese physics world. Insofar as the Big Bang contradicted Engels's declaration that the universe must be infinite in space and time, Fang's paper was tantamount to heresy.

scholarly journals Tempeature Redshift of Photons

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoping Hu
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Hubble Constant ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
New Physics ◽  
Current Theory ◽  
Big Bang Theory ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
Expansion Force ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

This article presents a new theory on redshift of light from celestial bodies. Lately it has been found that the Hubble constant calculated from different methods discord so much that calls arise for new physics to explain. Also, in addition to many unsolved puzzles like dark matter and source of expansion force, we shall show in this article that the current theory of redshift implies a few hidden, unreasonale assumptions. By assuming photon has temperature and its thermal energy is fully converted to wave energy, this article shows that photon can have a new redshift called Temperature Redshift, which not only is more significant for remote stars or galaxies, but also better fits the observational data, including those used in Hubble constant calculation. As such, if true, this new theory not only adds to our new understanding of photons, but may totally change our current understanding of the Universe, i.e., the Big Bang theory.

The Battle for the Cosmos!

2019 ◽  
pp. 84-92
Author(s):  
Nicholas Mee
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Cosmic Microwave Background ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
George Gamow ◽  
Big Bang Theory ◽  
Fred Hoyle ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

We now know the universe began with the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, but for several years debate raged between the supporters of the Big Bang theory led by George Gamow and supporters of the Steady State theory led by Fred Hoyle. Hoyle showed that the elements were synthesized in the stars, not in the Big Bang as Gamow believed. But Gamow’s colleagues Alpher and Herman predicted the existence of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) created immediately after the Big Bang. The CMB was discovered by Penzias and Wilson and this provided the crucial evidence that the Big Bang theory is correct. The CMB has since been studied in detail by a series of space probes.

scholarly journals Physics Essay: Six Baseless and Irrational Problems in Modern Cosmology

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Zifeng Li
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Mass Energy ◽  
Curved Space ◽  
Big Bang Theory ◽  
Modern Cosmology ◽  
Hubble’S Law ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe

<p class="1Body">Analyzes the Big Bang theory, recession of galaxies, Hubble's law, multi-dimensional space, curved space and black hole in modern cosmology and points out that these six theories are all baseless and irrational, contrary to classical science. Promotes the use of plain view of the universe - the materialist view of space–time-mass-energy to study the universe. The observations and understanding of the universe are very limited now. Cosmology should be realistic, not based on irrational models.</p>

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