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Did the Universe begin to exist without a cause?

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01 Clarifying the question

We mean to ask here with the whole of space-time reality began to exist on its own, without any cause whatsoever. Notice that we are not asking whether it might simply exist on its own without a cause, but rather whether it can begin to exist without a cause. To define our terms:

Physical reality = def. The Universe or the conjunction of all universes. All space and time, its boundary points, and contents.
“Begin to exist” = def. A state of affairs begins to obtain if and only if there is a time-dependent state A, and at least one finite interval or point of time X, such that A does not occur prior to X.1

Sources and notes
  1. William Lane Craig offers the following alternative analysis particular to the tensed theory of time (note: “iff” means “if an only if”):

“…where 'x' ranges over any entity and 't' ranges over times, whether instants or moments of nonzero finite duration:
A. x begins to exist at t iff x comes into being at t.
B. x comes into being at t iff
  (i) x exists at t, and the actual world includes no state of affairs in which x exists timelessly,
  (ii) t is either the first time at which x exists or is separated from any t′ < t at which x existed by an interval during which x does not exist, and
  (iii) x’s existing at t is a tensed fact.” [Craig & Sinclair, The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Blackwell, 2010), 194.] Similarly, see every event has a cause.

  1. • Quentin Smith: “The most reasonable belief is that we came from nothing, by nothing, and for nothing.” [Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology (Oxford, 1993), 135.]

The argument field

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4 arguments at this level

For

Supports this claim

2 reasons

  1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause

    01 Supporting reason Whatever begins to exist has a cause Read argument · 3 paths deeper

    Whatever begins to exist has a cause; i.e. uncaused events are impossible.1.

    This page analyzes these two evidences,:

    This is relevant, of course, because the Universe is an existing thing/entity.

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  2. Existence “after” non-existence is incoherent

    02 Supporting reason Existence “after” non-existence is incoherent Read argument

    If something can come from nothing, then non-existence can be “followed by” existence. This is relevant because non-existence being “followed by” existence is straightforwardly impossible.1


    Sources and notes
    1. • David Oderberg: “[The words ‘followed by’ here] cannot mean is that there is at one time nothing and at a subsequent time something, because the nonexistence of anything is supposed to include time: to say that at one time there is nothing whatsoever is self-defeating because it is to say that there is a time at which nothing exists — hence something did exist. But it is hard to see how else we are supposed to understand ‘followed by’; or when the denier of the causal principle says that it is possible for something to come from nothing what are we to understand by “from”? Again it cannot have a causal sense because something is supposed to have come into existence uncaused. All that appears to be left is a timeless contradiction — the existence of nothing and the existence of something.” [“Traversal of the Infinite, the 'Big Bang' and the Kalam Cosmological Argument.” Philosophia Christi 4 (2002): 305-36.]
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Against

Challenges this claim

2 reasons

  1. Matter can't be created (1st Law of Thermodynamics)

    01 Challenging reason Matter can't be created (1st Law of Thermodynamics) Read argument

    1st Law of Thermodynamics (conservation) says matter cannot be created or destroyed. This is relevant because if physical reality began to exist then, in contradiction to the 1st law of Thermodynamics, matter would have begun to exist as well.

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  2. Time can't be caused (no "before" time)

    02 Challenging reason Time can't be caused (no "before" time) Read argument

    Causation requires space-time. This is relevant because if causing spacetime (emphasis on time) requires spacetime to already exist, then causing spacetime would amount to self-causation, which is absurd.

    Sources and notes
    1. The subsantivalist view of time loosely says space and time are like a container for objects and movement. Without the container, events could not occur. However, on the relational view, space and time exist through relationships; the existence of space requires objects, and the exist of time requires events. So imagine God metaphorically sitting for all eternity. On a relational view, no time passes. When God metaphorically stands up and starts moving, time begins. (Or more realistically, when God chooses to create.)
    2. It is true that temporal becoming requires time, as do notions of before and after. However, causation can be atemporal. Philosophers call this simultaneous causation. Consider how God might have caused the universe to exist. Possibly: God's atemporally seeing that ‘creating a Universe with a beginning is good’ is the cause of God's deciding/acting to create. Here we have a non-event state (independent of time) causing a first immaterial event (God's creating). The event of God's causing the first material event (e.g., causing the Universe to begin to exist) is simultaneous with the coming into being of the Universe. That is to say, the event of God's deciding/acting would be temporally simultaneous to the creation event while being logically and causally prior to it. (Again, this fits the criteria for what philosophers call “simultaneous causation”). As an example of simultaneous causation, consider how a chandelier's not falling depends atemporally on the chain it hangs on. Similarly a bowling ball can be atemporally causing an impression in a pillow it is resting on.

    • William Lane Craig: “classical theological creationists like al-Ghazali (1963, pp. 23, 33, 36) maintained that the cause of the origin of the universe is timeless, and contemporary defenders of divine timelessness such as Stump and Kretzmann (1981), Helm (1988), Yates (1990), and Leftow (1992) also conceive of God's causal relation to the world to be one which involves no temporal succession on God's part, whereas the effect is temporal in its existence.”

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