The word Ex-nihilo means “out of nothing” which is an absurd thought to William Craig. Everything must have a beginning; even the universe he says.  Nothing in this “actual” world can be seen as infinite, not even the universe.   He explains actual infinites as all the things we know like the planets, humans, ideas, stars and so on. The only infinites that make sense in this world are potential infinites.     A good example of a potential infinite is the future because we do not know how many events will be added to the future and it is possible that it can be for infinity but it will never be an actual infinity. The reason Craig does not believe in actual infinites is because they would not make logical sense in our world.   For example, imagine that Earth and Jupiter have been orbiting the sun from eternity.  Suppose that it takes the Earth one year to complete one orbit and that it takes Jupiter three years to complete one orbit. Thus, for every one orbit Jupiter completes, Earth completes three. Now the question is if they have been orbiting from eternity, which has completed more orbits? Mathematicians would say they would be equal. 

Craig takes into careful consideration many theories like the Big bang, oscillating, steady state, and thermodynamics theories, but he just can’t wrap his head around any of them.  None of them make enough sense to be able to explain why the universe was created and why people think it’s infinite. The only possible explanation that Craig does agree with is that everything came into existence by a personal creator. That Personal Creator is God.  Personal because God chose to create the universe, it wasn’t the effect of a cause. The cause being God. So that’s why the universe is not eternal even though God is, because he chose to create the universe in time. Leaving God able to be timeless and eternal.

                I do agree with Craig and I do believe he is on to something because everything has a beginning. It’s hard to believe that the universe being so immense just started existing out of infinite density. So having a Personal Creator seems very logical.

 

1. Do you think the universe is infinite?
2. Do you agree with Craig’s theory of the universe being created by a personal creator?
3. If everything has a beginning, then how did God begin?