Oh, so you didn't really mean to imply that the Christian could be grouped with Melisadre. I agree, there's quite a difference.
I wouldn't say that at all. The conclusion of the KCA is more probably true than not. It doesn't have known with certainty to be a good argument for the existence of God. As I've said many times, I've never seen a good objection to it yet.
OK. Let me tear this to shreds for you. If you disagree with any of the following modify it and let me know. Here is WLC's version, copy and pasted from wikipedia.
- The universe has a cause;
- If the universe has a cause, then an uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists, who sans the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless and enormously powerful;
Therefore:
- An uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists, who sans the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless and enormously powerful.
1) The universe has a cause;
The universe is here, and there is evidence of a possible "beginning".
Whether or not it did have a beginning the universe is here, what we
observe appears as if something caused it. Fair enough.
2) If the universe has a cause, then an uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists, who sans the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless and enormously powerful;
This part makes two
huge assumptions: That this is the one and only universe, and that an "uncaused, personal Creator" exists.
Firstly, this could be one of many universes (multiverse), of which there's possible experimental evidence that could emerge through analyzing the cosmic microwave background radiation (this experiment is very new and still in the works). If not the multiverse, there is also the possibility that what we see as the big bang was simply a transitional state, and other events occurred
before the big bang and there might not have been a beginning to reality at all.
Basically what I'm saying is, there are many, many other possibilities besides this universe being the ONLY one, and that it actually had a beginning. Personally I think a beginning to reality itself is far more complicated than just it being here all along.
Secondly, the personal creator. Anything could be put in place of that, but god is put there to motivate the religious argument. Yes, it
is fair to assume that, but it is
also fair to assume that something else "created" the universe if it was even "created" in the first place. I can say an eternal mathematical generator created the universe, or there actually is no universe and what we experience is something like a "brain in a vat" and reality is something totally different.
Again, there are many, many other possibilities for what created the universe, and that's only if we ASSUME there was some type of absolute beginning. Also "uncaused" is attempt to replace eternal. WLC doesn't like the concept of actual infinity, so he uses "uncaused" instead, he basically shot himself in the foot there. And without a personal creator the universe is "beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless and enormously powerful"?
Loads of big words here, he could have just said "nothing". Enormously powerful?, power is the rate of change in work, which requires matter/energy, time and space, but it is stated that the universe is immaterial, spaceless, and timeless.
That statement makes absolutely no sense.
3)
Therefore: An uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists, who
sans the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless and enormously powerful.
Premise 1 is already up in the air, if premise 1
were true, and we could move on to premise 2...
Premise 2 is LOADED with assumptions, inconsistencies, and biased motivations. Therefore premise 3 loses ANY validity whatsoever.
Q.E.D.
Here is what I would say:
1) Reality may or
may not have had a cause;
2) If reality may or
may not have had a cause, then reality is not yet fully understood to make a claim to either.
3) Therefore: We cannot conclude with absolute certainty what reality is or
is not using our current understanding of it
.