The Kalam Argument Is Trash, says Internet Person

A comment from Youtube: “The Kalam is a trash argument, fallacious special pleading. If the universe began to exist, the principles therein also began to exist and cannot be applied.”

Notice a couple things.

First, the tone. This is (clearly) written by somebody suffering from emotional — and perhaps for him, uncontrollable — spasms. Who hurt him? I don’t know. Either way, while I can think of professional skeptics that question the force of the Kalam argument, I cannot think of professional skeptics who do not respect it. Critics who make remarks like these betray their insecurity. Which is fine. At least we then know where the hold up really lies.

Second, the ignorance. The Kalam argument — really, any argument for God — is propelled not by principles of physics but principles of metaphysics; hence, the causal commitment running the Kalam is independent of the physical laws of our universe.

This is a distinction commonly overlooked.

Metaphysical principles (including broad principles of causality) set the stage for what the structure of any possible world (physical or otherwise) must be. For example, that nothing brought from potency to act can be so reduced without the assisting activity of something already in act. Whereas natural laws describe possibilities/restraints within a physical system.

Here’s another way to think about it. If something is metaphysically necessary (such as the principle of causality) then it is going to be the case whatever the laws of nature are. Whereas if something is physically necessary (say, that nothing moves faster than the speed of light), it is the case where those specific laws of nature hold but not necessarily everywhere.

- Pat

PS - My intent in highlighting social media comments is to use them for instructive purposes. Hence, I’ll refrain from including a Username, as I don’t want my responses to be viewed as an invitation for trolling, tribalism, etc. Not that I’m concerned that any of my highly erudite readers would engage in such nonsense, but… you know.

PPS - If you’re interested in the Kalam, you may enjoy my conversation with Robert Koons on the topic.