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title: "Sam Harris on The cosmological argument"
description: "Harris argues the cosmological argument is a non-sequitur — even if the universe has a cause, nothing about that cause implies a personal God."
canonical: https://opendoubt.com/people/sam-harris/on/cosmological-argument
source: html
---

# Sam Harris on The cosmological argument

> Harris argues the cosmological argument is a non-sequitur — even if the universe has a cause, nothing about that cause implies a personal God.

Position

# Sam Harris on _The cosmological argument_

Argues againstNeuroscientist, philosopher, and author

Harris argues the cosmological argument is a non-sequitur — even if the universe has a cause, nothing about that cause implies a personal God.

Harris treats the cosmological argument as a gap argument: it identifies a genuine mystery — why does anything exist? — and fills the gap with God, as though naming the mystery explains it. But 'God' is not an explanation; it is a label attached to our ignorance.

He presses the logical gap between the conclusion ('the universe has a cause') and the theistic inference ('that cause is a personal God who answers prayers'). Even granting that the universe has a cause, Harris argues, nothing in the argument tells us that the cause is conscious, personal, moral, or interested in human affairs. The cosmological argument, at best, gets you to deism — and from deism to Christianity is a journey it cannot make.

Harris also questions whether the concept of causation even applies to the universe as a whole. Our experience of cause and effect is local and temporal — it may not apply to the origin of time itself.

Key quotes

> “Even if we accepted that the universe had a cause, this would not suggest that this cause is the God of Abraham, or any other personal deity.”

Continue exploring

[

Sam Harris

Full profile — positions, quotes, and key moments.

](/people/sam-harris)[

The cosmological argument

The full argument — stated fairly, then answered.

](/arguments/cosmological-argument)

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