The Kalam Cosmological Argument is Sound

BURDEN OF PROOF: Interpretation: a)Pro must affirm that the KCA is sound, while Con must deny that the KCA is sound. The Burden of Proof is therefore shared, with each side having a position to demonstrate. b)Neither side is bound to demonstrate their position with 100% certainty. The judge is voting based on which stance is most probable in light of in round arguments. Justification: a)Fairness – This interpretation provides both sides with equal ground. Neither side is capable of winning the debate without presenting an argument. b)Real World- This interpretation matches with real world evaluation of argument claims. When deciding if a claim is true or false an individual weighs the arguments in favor of truth or falsity and picks the most likely option. KCA OVERVIEW: The formal structure of the KCA is valid; the principle question is the truth of the first and second premise. To win this debate, Pro must demonstrate that the first and second premises are both more likely true than false. If Pro more adequately demonstrates the veracity of Premise 1 and 2 than Con demonstrates the falsity, Pro has won the debate. PREMISE 1: WHATEVER BEGINS HAS A CAUSE a)This claim is supported overwhelmingly by thousands of years of human experience. The necessity of causation seems so intuitively obvious that to claim otherwise can hardly be met with other than hearty skepticism. In the face of common sense and experience, Con must offer an exceptionally strong critique of this premise. At debates end, if the judge is unsure of which side has won Premise 1, the judge should err on the side of established wisdom and vote Pro. b)"From nothing comes nothing." It is impossible for non-existent thing to be the cause of an existent cause. This is a metaphysical truth grounded in intuition that is bourn out in our experience of the necessary world. Experience shows that events do not occur uncaused; we do not see cars popping into existence for example. It then follows that a something with a beginning must have been caused be something rather than nothing. PREMISE 2: THE UNIVERSE BEGAN TO EXIST a) Proof 1 a.i) If there is no beginning of the universe, then there is no beginning of time. a.ii) If there is no beginning of time, then each moment in time is preceded by an infinite amount of temporal moments. a.iii) An infinite series cannot be completed by successive addition. a.iv) It can then be seen that a universe without a beginning is not possible, as in order for the present moment to occur, an infinite series of temporal moments must have occurred. However, such a series could never be completed, and so the present moment could not occur. Clearly the present does occur and so the universe has a beginning. b) Proof 2 b.i) An actual infinite cannot exist. To exist in this sense is to exist metaphysically as a real object, not as a conceptual object. The existence of actual infinites results in physical absurdities. For example, consider a hotel containing an infinite number of rooms, each room is occupied by a person. Suppose that guests in only odd numbered room check out; an infinite number of patrons leave but the hotel is then still occupied by an infinite number of patrons (as there are an infinite number of occupied even number rooms.) However, consider if all patrons with a room number larger that #1 leave. Now an infinite number of patrons have left but only one room remains occupied. The absurdity here is that the same number of real patrons can leave this hotel and leave the hotel in different states of occupancy. This is an absurdity that makes no sense in terms of REAL hotel rooms and REAL people. b.ii) An infinite temporal regress of events is an actual infinite. If the universe had no beginning, this would require the existence of an infinite number of events of finite duration. A universe without beginning then entails the existence of an actual infinite, namely, that an infinite number of finite duration events exists. b.iii) An infinite temporal regress of events cannot exist. This follows from b.i and b.ii, and requires that time and the universe have a beginning.