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The Kalam Argument: Did the Universe Have a Cause?

The big question

Why is there something instead of nothing? Why are there stars, trees, and people at all? People have asked this for a very long time.

One old way to think about it is called the Kalam argument. It has an Arabic name because Muslim thinkers used it long ago. Today, Christian thinkers like William Lane Craig use it too. It has only three steps, so let’s walk through them.

The argument in three steps

Premise 1: Everything that begins to exist has a cause.

A cause is what makes something happen. A cake does not just show up in your kitchen; someone baked it. When a domino falls, we know something pushed it. We never see things pop into being out of nothing at all.

This step does not say everything needs a cause. It is only about things that begin.

Premise 2: The universe began to exist.

The universe is everything there is: all of space, time, and matter. Matter is anything that takes up space, like rocks, water, and air. Did it always exist, or did it start? There are two kinds of reasons to think it started.

A reason from thinking. Picture a long line of people waiting for tickets. Each person must wait for the one in front of them. Now picture the line going on forever, with no front. Would you ever get your ticket? Some thinkers say the past is like that line. If there were an endless number of days before today, we could never have reached today. But here we are, so they say the past must have had a first day.

A reason from science. Scientists see that the universe is getting bigger as space itself stretches. So in the past, it was smaller. Run it backward, like a movie in reverse, and everything gets packed into a tiny, very hot space. Scientists call that early time the Big Bang, and it was about 13.8 billion years ago.

Many people think the Big Bang was the true start of everything. But not all scientists agree. Some think something may have come before it, and nobody has the final answer yet.

Check it: ESA, “Celebrating the legacy of ESA’s Planck mission”

Conclusion: So the universe has a cause.

If both steps are true, this one must be true too, like this: all dogs are animals, and Rex is a dog, so Rex is an animal. That is why people who disagree spend their time on the first two steps.

Check it: William Lane Craig, “The Kalam Cosmological Argument” (Reasonable Faith)

What could the cause be like?

If the universe had a cause, what was that cause like? Craig points to a few clues.

  • Outside time and space. The cause made time and space, so it must be outside of them, the way a painter is not inside the painting.
  • Very powerful. It made all of space, time, and matter.
  • It chose. A thing that never changes, like a machine that is always switched on, would always do the same thing. Its universe would have always been there. But the universe began, and that hints at someone who decided to make it. Choosing is what persons do.

That sounds a lot like the God of the Bible. But let’s be fair: this argument alone does not show that the cause is loving, or that He came to us in Jesus. Christians point to other reasons, like Jesus rising from the dead. The Kalam is one clue, not the whole story.

What do people who disagree say?

Kind and smart people disagree about this argument. Here are their most common questions.

Objection: “Then who made God?”

If everything needs a cause, then God needs one too. Why stop at God?

Response: The first step does not say everything needs a cause. It says things that begin need one. The Bible teaches that God never began; He has always been. So no one made God.

Still debated: Some ask, “Then why not say the universe never began?” That is a fair question. It is why step two matters so much.

Objection: Tiny particles pop up from nothing

Some scientists study particles, which are very tiny pieces of matter. This science is called quantum physics. They say some particles can pop up with no clear cause.

Response: Those particles do not come from true nothing. They pop up in space that has energy and follows rules. That is like ripples in a pond, not ripples with no pond.

Still debated: Scientists still argue about how these particles work, and some think they truly have no cause.

Objection: Maybe the universe always existed

Maybe there was something before the Big Bang, and the universe has no start at all.

Response: Then we are back to the endless ticket line: how could we ever reach today? And the best science we have points back to a hot, packed early time.

Still debated: This is a real, open question. Some thinkers say the ticket line is not a fair picture, since every past day is only a certain number of days from today. Scientist Sean Carroll says we do not know whether that early time “was really the beginning.”

Objection: Causes only work inside the universe

Sean Carroll also says we should not ask what caused the universe. Causes make sense for things inside it, like dominoes and cakes, but the universe as a whole may not need one.

Response: Craig says “nothing comes from nothing” is true everywhere. If things could pop into being from nothing, why don’t bikes pop into your room?

Still debated: Carroll thinks this is the most important part of the whole debate.

Check it: Sean Carroll, “Post-Debate Reflections” (the other side, in his own words)

What the Bible says

The Bible does not list these steps, but it teaches the same big idea: the universe had a start, and God made it.

  • Genesis 1:1: God made everything at the very start.
  • John 1:1-3: God’s Word, Jesus, was there at the start, and everything was made through Him.
  • Hebrews 11:3: By faith we know God made the world by His command.
  • Psalm 90:2: God was there before the mountains, and He will always be God.
  • Romans 1:20: What God made shows us His great power.

Check it yourself

The people in the town of Berea checked what they were taught (Acts 17:11), and you can too. Here are some good places to start:

Want the full science and history? Read the deep dive.