Why the Universe Must've Had a Beginning

One of the key arguments for the existence of God is based on the premise that the universe had a beginning. The argument goes like this:

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause of its existence.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore the universe had a cause.

Since the universe is the totality of space, time and matter whatever caused the universe must be non-spatial, non-temporal, immaterial, enormously powerful and enormously intelligent. In other words, the cause of the universe was either God or something very much like God.

But critics of the argument have offered challenges to the two premises, and philosopher William Lane Craig rebuts those challenges in a thirty minute video that can be viewed here. As part of his defense of the second premise he shows a five minute video which addresses the philosophical reasons, as opposed to the scientific reasons, for maintaining that the universe cannot be infinitely old, or past eternal, and must therefore have had a temporal beginning.

If the universe were infinitely old then there would've been an infinite series of events leading up to the present moment, but there are numerous philosophical reasons for doubting the possibility that an actual infinite series of events is possible.

The video explains some of those problems.