Ghazali on the Creation vs. Eternity of the World

There are two ways in which Ghazali contributes to the discussion of whether God exists: by arguing for the existence of God, and by arguing against certain views which, in his opinion, stand in the way of truly believing that God exists. In this paper I examine Ghazali's argument from creation and his refutation of the philosophers' second proof for the eternity of the world. My purpose will be to argue that: firstly, Ghazali's argument and his refutation are based on incompatible views of time, and cannot, therefore, both be maintained. Secondly, Ghazali fails to establish the one interesting premiss which he employs in his argument from creation.