The Kalam Cosmological Argument is Sound

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.The Problem with IntuitionP1 of the KCA is often justified with an appeal to intuition and common experience and admittedly these intuitions often hold up in our day to day lives. Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher and a champion of what he called 'rational intuition'. Unfortunately for Aristotle, reality has a nasty habit of undermining how we intuitively understand the universe. I think that I need only point out that for thousands of years it seemed intuitively obvious to everyone that the Sun revolves around the Earth, but allow me to go into further detail.Consider Aristotle's physics of motion, for instance. According to Aristotle, the speed at which an object falls is directly related to its mass. [1] We now know that this is false. Objects of different mass false at the same rate in a vacuum. The factor that determines that rate at which an object falls is air resistance. Don't trust me though, go find two objects of similar shape and test Aristotle's hypothesis for yourself. Uncaused Quantum EventsAs I have shown, intuition is a poor method of discerning the truth. Of course, none of this falsifies P1, but it does undermine its justification. However, I can go further still and provide counter-examples to P1. The causality principle does seem to hold at the classical level (and within space-time), but break apart at the quantum level. Quantum fluctuations bring virtual particles into and out of existence. These fluctuations are spontaneous and uncaused. Furthermore, radioactive decay is the “spontaneous disintegration of a radionuclide accompanied by the emission of ionizing radiation in the form of alpha or beta particles or gamma rays.” [2]2. The Universe Began to Exist. The KCA is predicated on the A-theory of time (presentism) being true. Presentism is the philosophical position that only the present moment is real. Events and entities of the past and the future do not exist. If this is true, then the universe did begin to exist.If however, the B-theory of time (eternalism) is true, then the universe exists tenselessly in a four dimensional block ; it never began to exist because according to eternalism all points in time are equally real.Even William Lane Craig, the populariser and most ardent defender of the KCA, concedes this point. In The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology, Craig writes that: “From start to finish, the kalam cosmological argument is predicated upon the A-Theory of time. On a B-Theory of time, the universe does not in fact come into being or become actual at the Big Bang... If time is tenseless, then the universe never really comes into being, and, therefore, the quest for a cause of its coming into being is misconceived.” [3]While presentism is more intuitive than eternalism, that does not make it true. In fact, according to Einstein's special relativity “observers in different frames of reference (such as observers moving at different speeds) can have different perceptions of whether a pair of events happen at the same time or at different times... The theory also says we have no reason to prefer one observer's perception to another – both are correct. We therefore cannot say that there are a set of events simultaneously happening in the present. People's “present” is different depending on their frame of reference.” [4]Einstein himself came to the conclusion that the universe exists as a four dimensional block. He said that “since there exists in this four dimensional structure [space-time] no longer any sections whichrepresent "now" objectively. . .” [5]Applying Causality to the Universe? Even if I were to grant both premises as to Pro (I'm not), the conclusion that the universe had a cause would not follow from the premises. Everything we know about causality is the result of observation made inside universe. It would be absurd to apply it to universe. This would entail atemporal causality, for which there is no empirical data. [1] http://www.bps-ok.org... [2] http://www.thefreedictionary.com... [3] The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology, pp. 183-184. [4] http://www.samwoolfe.com... [5] http://everythingforever.com...