The Last Philosophy Friday: William Lane Craig
With
the first Friday of April, I give you the last philosopher bio of the series. Below I introduce one of my favorite contemporary philosophers and apologists, Dr. William Lane Craig. I hope you have enjoyed
the series! I have another series or two or three in progress, as well as some stand-alone pieces, so stay tuned.
Also, feel free to leave me any comments and suggestions you have regarding
this past series to enlighten my further rhetoric endeavors.
Dr. William
Lane Craig: 1949
William Lane
Craig, Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, first
became a Christian during his junior year at high school. From then on, he
studied philosophy and religion. He has authored and coauthored numerous books
including Reasonable Faith, On Guard, Contending with Christianity’s Critics, The Only Wise God, The Kalam Cosmological Argument, and many others. He is most famous
for his work as an apologist, for, like the ancient philosopher Thomas Aquinas,
William Lane Craig endeavors to prove the reliability of Christianity using
logic and reason. He is perhaps most famous for his rendition of the Kalam
Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God.[1]
The Kalam
Cosmological argument can be used by any theistic religion, for it does not
prove the existence of the Christian God but only an all-powerful God of some
kind. It is not altogether unlike one of Aquinas’s Five Ways, the Argument from Causality. The Kalam Cosmological
argument is as follows:
Whatever begins to exist has a
cause.
The
universe began to exist.
Therefore,
the universe has a cause.
Since the
universe cannot cause itself, it must have been caused by God--an uncaused
powerful being outside of space and time. These premises are defended by
science and by human experience.[2]
The first premise is supported by
human experience and science. Nothing has ever been observed to spontaneously
come into existence. Everything that we
see has a cause other than itself. Believing that something could pop into
existence spontaneously would be unreasonable at best. The belief in magic
would be a more reasonable belief than the belief in spontaneous existence.[3]
The second premise is supported by numerous amounts of scientific evidence. The
scientific findings of Albert Einstein, Alexander Friedmann, Georges Lemaître,
and Edwin Hubble indicate that the universe began at a fixed point in time and has
since been expanding.[4]
These sound premises lead to the
conclusion that the universe was caused, and that God is the only reasonable
cause of everything that exists. William Lane Craig resurfaced an important and
convincing argument for God’s existence. This argument has profound influence
for the world of philosophy. He continues to publish inspirational
philosophical works that continue to inform our understanding of religion. One
of the western world’s most recent philosophers, William Lane Craig is also one
of the most influential philosophers in the western world.
[1]. "William Lane Craig: Biographical
Sketch." ReasonableFaith.org.
Reasonable Faith, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
[2]. "Transcript: The Kalam Cosmological
Argument." ReasonableFaith.org.
Reasonable Faith, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
[3]. Ibid.
[4]. Ibid.
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