Kalam Cosmology

Reasonable Faith with Dr. William Lane Craig released a new video today, and while I haven't finished watching it yet (I had to stop at the Q&A part), I have to say that it is the most interesting video that Reasonable Faith has published in a while.  Dr. Craig's explanation of the Kalam Cosmological Argument was extremely profound that touched on many important theological themes. Many of these reminded me of a couple things that one of my favorite modern evangelists, Fr. Robert Barron of Word on Fire Ministries, said about Scripture and theology. 

Fr. Barron describes Genesis is a an amazing book of theology. Dr Craig described in his video an ancient debate between Hebrew and Greek philosophy, the former holding that the universe had a beginning and the latter holding that the universe is eternal. Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created..." is a very profound theological statement, and also Dr. Carig's closing statement. 

Modern audiences seem to lose the gravity of this. We live an era of unprecedented development in cosmology and the philosophical notion that the universe has a beginning seems to be lost on us. It's easy to take the universe's beginning for granted given the current science of cosmology. Back then, though, it was a pretty significant prediction that turned out to be true. 

Fr. Barron also said much of the language in the Bible is actually pretty defiant. The introduction of the Gospel of Mark, for example, describes Christ in terms ordinarily associated with the Roman Emperor. Using language to subvert the mainstream seems to be a tradition going back to Genesis and speaks to the idea that the Christian religion is a radical one not in the sense of protests and civil disobedience but in the sense that it challenges the popular paradigm.

Christianity is a new way to understand the world. It's not old and dusty. St. Paul understood this and tried to explain it to the Church in Rome, saying "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." - Romans 12:2