The most common type of the cosmological argument, postulating a god as a “First Cause,” can be summarized thus:

1.Everything that exists or begins to exist has a cause.

2.The universe exists and began to exist.

3.The universe must have a cause.

4.The cause of the universe is God.

Time is an aspect of the universe, it‘s hard to see how it can be said to have a “beginning” in the way the word is normally used. The concept of a “beginning” normally assumes a “time before” at which the object did not exist — but there was no “time before” the universe. Without a time before, the notion of "cause" no longer applies.

A objection that the argument concludes that a “god” exists, but if so, this god must have a cause (according to the same argument). This leads to an infinite regress of causes (gods) unacceptable to the theist, so most believers make an exception for their god, asserting that it doesn’t need a cause — but there is no obvious reason why this exception cannot be applied to the universe, too. If a god “just is,” why can’t the universe “just be?” Defining God this way would be begging the question.

Music: Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech.com