Philosophical Arguments for a Beginning

Abstract

A key premise of the kalām cosmological argument is that the universe came into existence. In this chapter I defend three arguments in support of this premise, namely, the argument based on traversing infinite time, the argument based on ungrounded causal chains, and the argument based on the paradoxes of beginningless time. Before defending these arguments, however, I offer a detailed analysis of what it means for the universe to come into existence.