This is a type of philosophical error that in and of itself. It is an unjustified assumption that a characteristic held by members of the group automatically pertains to the group as a whole. The group may have that characteristic, but is it wrong to just assume that it does.
Bertrand Russell used the example all men having mothers does not mean that there is a mother of all men in the radio debate.
David Hume argues that if we have the explanation of each of twenty particles of matter, it would inappropriate to then ask what the cause of the group is, because that is given by the explanation of the cause of particles. Also, just because there is an explanation for each individual particle, does not mean that there is a cause for the group as a whole. The mistake is calling the individual particles a group.
To say that the universe must be caused because the things in it are caused is therefore falling victim to the quantifier shift fallacy. There is no evidence to suggest that God is the cause of the universe, therefore, the argument is fundamentally flawed.

	Created by Summer Pearce about 10 years ago

AS - Level (Year 1) Philosophy (4b) Traditional Arguments for the Existence of God - Cosmo.) Slide Set on The Kalam Causal Argument, created by Summer Pearce on 10/05/2016.