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But for us there is only one God. He is the Father. All things came from him, and we live for him (1 Corinthians 8:6, NIRV).
Can we logically prove the existence of God?
One of my favorite authors is William Lane Craig. In his writings, he proposes the Kalam Cosmological Argument for the existence of God. Here it is:
- Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
- The universe began to exist.
- Therefore, the universe has a cause.
This logic seems conclusive to me. Can you break this chain of thought?
William Lane Craig didn’t originate the Kalam Cosmological argument. The argument goes back to Aristotle (the father of Western philosophy), but Craig refined and defended it.
The Kalam Cosmological Argument has also been called the Cosmological Argument. In a simplistic explanation, the Kalam/Cosmological argument is another way of asking, “How can we exist without a creator?”
Ronald Reagan, known as a politician but never as a philosopher or theologian, once gave his rendition of the Kalam/Cosmological argument in a speech at a National Prayer Breakfast…
I have long been unable to understand the atheist in this world of beauty, and I’ve had an unholy desire to invite some atheists to dinner and then serve the most fabulous and gourmet dinner that has ever been concocted… and then ask them if they believed there was a cook!
Pastor Grant with Interruptions and President Ronald Reagan at a National Day of Prayer Breakfast might summarize and simplify the Kalam/Cosmological argument, but William Lane Craig adds a few points.
Let’s review…
- Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
- The universe began to exist.
- Therefore, the universe has a cause.
To which Craig adds…
- If the universe has a cause, then an uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists who, sans (without) the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless, and enormously powerful.
- Therefore, an uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists, who sans the universe, is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless, and enormously powerful.
Craig as a philosopher and theologian, does get wordier and more complicated, but read points four and five again and again and again and again. Now pause and read points one through five all at once again and again.
Some philosophers/theologians/apologists believe that Craig’s Kalam/Cosmological Argument for the existence of God is among the most sophisticated and well-argued proof of God’s existence in contemporary theological philosophy.
Wow. A very sophisticated HHHHMMMHHM is needed right now.
We’ve reached the pinnacle of rational discourse in today’s Interruption. Let’s conclude with a comment from Scripture…
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1, KJV).
Amen.