Week 10: Craig, "The Existence of God and the Beginning of the Universe"

 

DQ1. Avicenna gives an argument with the conclusion, 'A necessary being exists.'

(a) Is this conclusion enough to establish that God exists?

(b) Try to reconstruct Avicenna's argument as a valid argument in premise-conclusion form. Is it a good argument?

 

DQ2. Here is Craig's argument that the universe's beginning has a cause.

The Kalam Cosmological Argument

  1. Whatever exists has a cause (Principle of Sufficient Reason)
  2. The universe began to exist
  3. Therefore, the universe's beginning has a cause.

Why believe the second premise? Why believe the first premise? Is this a good argument for the existence of God?

 

(Optional) DQ3. What does it mean to say that the universe is 'finely tuned'? Is this a good reason to think that the universe has a creator?