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    Carmelics

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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The causal reasoning used in the Kalaam cosmological argument for God's existence can be applied to the universe itself.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.The Kalaam argument's causal principle ('everything that begins to exist has a cause') applies to contingent entities within the universe, not to the universe as a totality.
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    • 2.Applying intra-universal causal reasoning to the universe itself commits the fallacy of composition, as Hume argued in the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
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    • 3.The universe as a whole need not share the causal properties of its parts, so the inference from parts to whole is logically unwarranted.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Kant demonstrated in the First Antinomy that applying temporal causation to the universe as a whole generates irresolvable contradictions, not legitimate cosmological conclusions.
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    • 2.If causal reasoning applied symmetrically to the universe, it would equally license the conclusion that the universe is self-caused or uncaused—the very alternatives the Kalaam argument seeks to eliminate for God.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.The Kalaam cosmological argument employs reasoning about origins, self-causation, and infinite causal regress to argue for a first cause.
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    • 2.The same questions about origin, self-causation, and infinite causal regress arise when inquiring into the existence of the universe.
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