Does Science Prove the Universe Had a Beginning? Apologetics Study Part 2 (James Sinclair)

"The Cosmological argument is a family of arguments that seek to demonstrate the existence of a Sufficient Reason or First Cause of the existence of the cosmos... The kalam cosmological argument traces its roots to the efforts of early Christian theologians who, out of their commitment to the biblical teaching of creation ex nihilo, sought to rebut the Aristotelian doctrine of the eternity of the universe." The argument is extremely simple: 1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause. 2. The universe began to exist. 3. Therefore, the universe has a cause. This is part 2 of our apologetics study as we work through "The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology." James Sinclair, co-author of the chapter on the kalam cosmological argument with William Lane Craig, joins the show to discuss the scientific evidence in support of premise 2. We look at the FRW mode, astronomical evidence for the Big Bang, the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems, the BVG theorem, quantum gravity approaches, and the exceptions to each of these approaches. Come join the conversation and bring your questions! James D. Sinclair (MS Physics Texas A&M, BS Physics Carnegie-Mellon) is a senior anti-air warfare analyst for the United States Navy with a specialty in the constructive (digital only) modeling of air-to-air combat. Some career accomplishments include analytical support for the fielding of the AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, combat utility evaluation of the F-35 Lighting II, and presentations at public symposia such as the Military Operations Research Society (MORS) and the Combat Identification Systems Conference (CISC). He began to interview cosmologists in the early 2000s on the topic of the beginnings of the universe, bringing Navy knowledge integration methods to the formulation known as the Kalam Cosmological Argument. This ultimately led to a collaboration with philosopher William Lane Craig and two co-authored articles: “The Kalam Cosmological Argument,” in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology and “On Non-Singular Spacetimes and the Beginning of the Universe,” in Scientific Approaches to the Philosophy of Religion. He also co-authored the article "Fine-Tuning and Indications of Transcendent Intelligence" with Robert Spitzer.