Q&A: Question About the Cosmological Argument
Question About the Cosmological Argument
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I would be glad to know how the Rabbi relates to a counterclaim regarding the cosmological argument, which says (roughly) that reality can simply come into being out of nothing, since cause-and-effect relations are valid only with regard to what exists within reality; it is a law that applies only inside it.
Therefore, the opponents argue, reality itself is not subject to the law of cause and effect; rather, this is a law that applies within it from the moment it came into being.
Therefore, one can conclude that reality simply came into being out of nothing, without any dependence on another being that would serve as its cause.
I would be glad to hear from you what your opinion is about this claim.
Answer
I would say that cause-and-effect relations are a product of our thought and not of experience (as David Hume showed). Therefore there is no reason to apply them only to our world. Beyond that, the assumption is that our ways of thinking and the laws of nature are valid unless proven otherwise (so, for example, we assume that the law of gravity is correct throughout the entire universe). And beyond all that, there is the physico-theological argument: our world is special, and if it has no cause, it is hard to accept that precisely such a world came into being.