Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T06:21:47.033Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Heartbreak at Hilbert's Hotel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2013

LANDON HEDRICK
LANDON HEDRICK*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA e-mail: landon.hedrick@huskers.unl.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

William Lane Craig's defence of the kalam cosmological argument rests heavily on two philosophical arguments against a past-eternal universe. In this article I take issue with one of these arguments, what I call the ‘Hilbert's Hotel Argument’ – namely, that the metaphysical absurdity of an actually infinite number of things existing precludes the possibility of a beginningless past. After explaining this argument, I proceed to raise some initial doubts. After setting those aside, I show that the argument is ineffective against proponents of presentism. The remainder of the article considers and rejects possible replies on Craig's behalf.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 27 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Craig, William Lane (2001a) ‘Middle knowledge, truth-makers, and the grounding objection’, Faith and Philosophy, 18, 337–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2001b) Time and Eternity: Exploring God's Relationship to Time (Wheaton IL: Crossway).Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2008a) Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, 3rd edn (Wheaton IL: Crossway).Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2008b) ‘Time, eternity, and eschatology’, in Walls, J. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook on Eschatology (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 596–613.Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2009) ‘Debate on the kalam argument’, Reasonable Faith Podcast (http://www.rfmedia.org/RF_audio_video/RF_podcast/Debate-on-the-Kalam-Argument.mp3). Accessed 24 June, 2012.Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2010a) ‘Question 163: past and future in the kalam cosmological argument’, Reasonable Faith with William Lane Craig (http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8197). Accessed 24 June, 2012.Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2010b) ‘Taking tense seriously in differentiating past and future: a response to Wes Morriston’, Faith and Philosophy, 27, 451–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2011a) ‘Kalam questions and more’, Reasonable Faith Podcast (http://www.rfmedia.org/RF_audio_video/RF_podcast/Kalam_Questions_and_More.mp3). Accessed 24 June, 2012.Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2011b) ‘Why are (some) Platonists so insouciant?’ Philosophy, 86, 213–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, William Lane & Sinclair, James D. (2009) ‘The kalam cosmological argument’, in Craig, William Lane & Moreland, J. P. (eds) The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell), 101–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horgan, Terence (1978) ‘The case against events’, The Philosophical Review, 87, 28–47.Google Scholar
Lewis, David (1973) Counterfactuals (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Lewis, David (1986) On the Plurality of Worlds (Oxford: Basil Blackwell).Google Scholar
Morriston, Wes (2002) ‘Craig on the actual infinite’, Religious Studies, 38, 147–166.Google Scholar
Morriston, Wes (2003) ‘Must metaphysical time have a beginning?’, Faith and Philosophy, 20, 288–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morriston, Wes (2010) ‘Beginningless past, endless future, and the actual infinite’, Faith and Philosophy, 27, 439–450.Google Scholar
Plantinga, Alvin (1976) ‘Actualism and possible worlds’, Theoria, 42, 139–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Inwagen, Peter (2009) ‘God and other uncreated things’, in Timpe, K. (ed.) Metaphysics and God: Essays in Honor of Eleonore Stump (New York: Routledge), 3–20.Google Scholar