A live map of reasons and replies

Is God the cause of the Universe (or physical reality)?

Trace the strongest lines of support, challenge each claim, and follow every response as far as the reasoning goes.

Start with an argument
02 Reasons
supporting
04 Reasons
challenging

Before you begin

Orient yourself to the question

01 Clarifying the question

Assuming that physical reality began to exist, and it has a cause, the following question can arise in canonical Kalam Cosmological Argument: Is that cause God?

  • God = def. The “greatest possible being”—maximally worthy of worship. In virtue of God's unsurpassable greatness then, God is thought to have the maximal consistent set of knowledge, power, and benevolence.
  • Physical reality = def. The Universe, or conjunction of all universes, and the laws that govern them. All space and time.

The argument field

Follow a claim. Test its reply.

Open any reason to read its case. Linked claims take you deeper into the tree.

6 arguments at this level

For

Supports this claim

2 reasons

  1. It can exist with no space, time, matter

    01 Supporting reason It can exist with no space, time, matter Read argument

    If space, time, and matter began to exist, then the cause of those three things obviously can't depend on those three things. (That would require self-causation.) So the cause is spaceless, timeless, and immaterial. This is relevant because it sounds very suspiciously like God; and functions as a powerfully fulfilled theistic prediction that atheists never imagined and entirely failed to make.

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  2. It has the power and disposition to cause it

    02 Supporting reason It has the power and disposition to cause it Read argument

    Whatever caused the Universe to exist (i.e. space, time, matter), must have at least both the ability and disposition to cause those specific three things to exist. This is relevant because such a cause sounds very suspiciously like God; and functions as a powerfully fulfilled theistic prediction that atheists never imagined and entirely failed to make.

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Against

Challenges this claim

4 reasons

  1. God wouldn't have reason to (not expected)

    01 Challenging reason God wouldn't have reason to (not expected) Read argument

    Even if God existed, creating a universe is not the kind of thing God would do. This is relevant because in the absence of seeing a reason to create something as highly specific as a universe, the likelihood that an all-good God would choose to create it is very low.

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  2. The Universe never began to exist

    02 Challenging reason The Universe never began to exist Read argument · 2 paths deeper

    Physical reality (all of space, time, and matter) was never caused to exist](/universe/begin).

    This page analyzes one evidence

    It matters that the Universe began to exist because otherwise it becomes incoherent to say it has a cause.

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  3. God does not exist

    03 Challenging reason God does not exist Read argument · 1 path deeper

    Theism is false. There is no God to create the universe.

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  4. “God did-it” isn't an explanation

    04 Challenging reason “God did-it” isn't an explanation Read argument · 9 paths deeper

    True explanations do not feature “God”.

    This page analyzes eight arguments:

    This is relevant because if we cannot rationally invoke God's activity as an explanation, then God is probably not the cause of physical reality.

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