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The Kalam Cosmological Argument and the Actual Infinity: Is an Infinite Past Impossible?

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  • Daniel Molina Torres
Daniel Molina Torres
Universidad Científica del Sur, Lima, Perú.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36446/af.e1125

Published 2025-06-26

Keywords

  • Dios,
  • Argumentos cosmológicos,
  • Kalam,
  • W. L. Craig,
  • Infinito
  • God,
  • Cosmological Arguments,
  • Kalam,
  • W. L. Craig,
  • Infinity
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Among the variety of cosmological arguments, the most popular is the Kalam cosmological argument, which aims to demonstrate a cause for the beginning of the universe (this cause after various reasonings, will seek to be identified with God). The peculiarity of the Kalam in contrast to other cosmological arguments, is that it depends in its premises on the finitude of the past, an issue that has been defended philosophically by offering a priori demonstrations of the impossibility of an infinite past, particularly: (i) the impossibility of a actual infinite, and (ii) the impossibility of forming an actual infinite by succesive addition. I will examine these arguments and show that they are unconvincing.

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