Mohammad al-Ghazzālī (1058-1111)
Atheist: Why do you believe that God exits?
Christian: Because there are compelling arguments that He exists.
Atheist: Let me hear one of them.
Christian: I will offer you the kalam argument.
1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause of its
existence.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause of its
existence.
Atheist: How is that an argument for existence of God?
Christian: Because the cause of the begining of the universe would have to be uncaused, eternal, changeless, timeless, and immaterial.
Atheist: And those are the attributes of God?
Christian: Yes, and I believe one can also add personal on that list, because it would have to be a personal agent who freely elects to create an effect in time.
Atheist: If whatever exist has a cause of its existence, what caused God’s existence?
Christian: You have misunderstood proposition 1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause of its
existence.
Atheist: And God being uncaused, eternal, changeless, timeless, and immaterial means He did not begin to exit.
Christian: Yes.
Atheist: That is just a “God of the gaps” reasoning, just because you can not explain the cause of the universe, you take a lazy way out by filling it with God.
Christian: But what I presented to you is a religiously neutral statements.
Atheist: How so?
Christian: Because these are obviously statements to which scientific evidence is relevant. They may then serve as premisses in a philosophical argument for a conclusion having religious significance. There is no gap here wanting to be filled.
Pow! There Goes An Atheist Down
For a full detail kalam Argument. Dialogue answer to “God of the Gap objection” is inspired by William Lane Craig
