cosmology Archives • Richard Carrier Blogs

The Other Problem with Nothing (and Kalam Shazam!)

Richard Carrier — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 20:18:17 +0000

In May philosopher Alex Malpass will debate William Lane Craig on the Kalam Cosmological Argument for God, and in preparation he is running a weekly series at Thoughtology on every argument there is for or against every premise of the KCA. It’s looking like a great series so far (you can start with Kalam Debate […]

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The Utter Destruction of the Fine Tuning Argument

Richard Carrier — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 15:07:38 +0000

Christopher Hitchens rightly said the argument from fine tuning is the best argument theists have, but only because it requires thought to figure out why it’s bullshit (whereas most Christian apologetics is obvious bullshit from the first moment you hear it). Because it is actually a really bad argument. Here I will explain this and […]

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Conclusively Ending the Kalam Cosmological Argument

Richard Carrier — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 14:41:59 +0000

What makes the whole flat-earth debate so eye-rollingly insufferable is that it’s just nothing but easily refutable made-up bullshit. I tire of even having to talk about it. It’s like arguing whether viruses exist or the moon is made of cheese—like, someone is actually feverishly arguing Luna is literally a quintillion-ton ball of dairy product. […]

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The Argument from Non-Locality

Richard Carrier — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 15:32:03 +0000

It is common to just assume God is timeless and spaceless. But I aver that’s logically impossible. You Have to Exist Somewhere to Exist at All If God has no location, then by definition there is no location at which God exists. And if there is no location at which God exists, then by definition […]

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Was Daniel Dennett Wrong in Creative Ways?

Richard Carrier — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 16:24:36 +0000

The great cognitive scientist and philosopher Daniel Dennett passed away this year. And shortly after, Cameron Bertuzzi interviewed a Christian apologist, Bob Stewart, on his channel Capturing Christianity, regarding “Daniel Dennett’s Philosophical Legacy,” titling the show “Wrong in Creative Ways.” In which they almost never discuss Daniel Dennett’s philosophical legacy, or ever show that he […]

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Is There at Least a Merely Deistic Kalam Cosmological Argument? A Debate with Carlo Alvaro

Richard Carrier — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 16:15:54 +0000

As another outcome of my recent debate with Andrew Loke (see We Should Reject Even the First Premise of the Kalam Cosmological Argument and What If We Reimagine ‘Nothing’ as a Field-State?) I have here engaged to debate a professor of philosophy, Dr. Carlo Alvaro, on the subject of the Kalam Cosmological Argument again, because […]

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What If We Reimagine ‘Nothing’ as a Field-State?

Richard Carrier — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 14:35:30 +0000

Yesterday I published my take on a recent debate I had with Andrew Loke, before an audience of philosophers, on whether my conclusion is sound that We Should Reject Even the First Premise of the Kalam Cosmological Argument. I took the stance of a nothing-first cosmology for the sake of that debate (arguendo), although I […]

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We Should Reject Even the First Premise of the Kalam Cosmological Argument

Richard Carrier — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 17:05:24 +0000

After an exchange of articles with Andrew Loke (see Why Nothing Remains a Problem: The Andrew Loke Fiasco and his reply) we were asked by a private professional forum to debate the topic of the Causal Principle, which anchors the first premise of the Kalam Cosmological Argument (or KCA), to wit, “Everything that begins to […]

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We Are Probably Not in a Simulation

Richard Carrier — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 15:47:49 +0000

‘Simulation Theory’ is popular lately so I am building a new summary piece on it. The following article repeats material elsewhere on my site but in scattered places, and with some new and connecting material, to provide a thorough and current treatment of the question. -:- Are we and the universe just a giant computer […]

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Ten Ways the World Would Be Different If God Existed

Richard Carrier — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 17:21:23 +0000

Imagine you just became a god. No, really. One second from now you become all powerful—for no reason at all; no one did this to you, you didn’t earn it, it literally just randomly happens. And by having all powers logically possible, you immediately also become all wise, all knowing, and all good. Because through […]

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