Q&A: The Cosmological Argument and Creation ex Nihilo
The Cosmological Argument and Creation ex Nihilo
Question
Hello Rabbi,
One of the foundations of the kalam / cosmological argument, as William Craig presents it, is that a thing cannot come into being out of nothing.
But I wanted to ask whether that is really so. After all, free choice is itself the coming-into-being of something out of nothing. If so, we have refuted the assumption of the cosmological argument. [And if you say that the emergence of choice is not something from nothing, then that is determinism in disguise].
With all due respect,
Moshe
Answer
The coming-into-being of things out of nothing is not reasonable. It is hard to dispute that. Free choice does not create entities out of nothing.
Discussion on Answer
A. It is not a physical state. The will, and only it, is created out of nothing.
B. There is a difference between states and entities. Otherwise, on your view, it is not clear how the first state began.
But it does create a new state out of nothing, doesn’t it?
If so, what is the big difference between entities and states..