1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
The above simplified Kalam Cosmological Argument was developed by Arabic philosophers during the Middle Ages. It is considered by many current Christian theologians to be the strongest cosmological argument for God's existence. William Lane Craig uses it extensively.
"Defenders of this form of the argument offer strong philosophical reasoning for the first premise and both philosophical and scientific reasons for the second. Since the form of the argument is (logically) valid, and there are good reasons to believe the first two premises are true, then the concluding third statement logically follows and is true. Furthermore, regarding the conclusion, William Lane Craig states, ‘philosophical analysis reveals that such a cause (of the universe) must have several of the principal theistic attributes.’ Therefore, not only must God exist, but he must have many of the qualities generally ascribed to God in the Bible: omniscience, omnipotence, rationality, personhood, and so on."[1]
[1] Edwards, Chuck; essay Richard Dawkins’s Illusion; found in True Reason: Confronting the Irrationality of the New Atheism, p.47,48
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