1.1 Teleological Argument - scholars

Question 1

Paley: why attributing goodness to the designer is justified

Answer 1

would only be unjustified in attributing goodness to the designer if the world were an unbearable place, and ‘it is a happy world after all’

Question 2

Paley: evidence that goodness outweighs suffering

Answer 2

‘happiness is the rule; misery is the exception’ eg we are shocked when we hear a friend is ill, but are not when we hear they are experiencing happiness

Question 3

Schopenhauer: evidence misery outweighs happiness

Answer 3

‘compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is engaged in eating the other’ ‘we generally find pleasure not so pleasant as we expected, and pain very much more painful’

Question 4

Paley: why attributing omnipotence to the designer is justified

Answer 4

a being capable of creating this universe much have power infinitely beyond power we have experience of, and infinite power equates to omnipotence

Question 5

how Ockham’s Razor supports Paley’s singular designer

Answer 5

it is a simpler and therefore preferable hypothesis that there be one omnipotent creator than numerous creators with finite power

Question 6

Schlesinger’s Argument From Suspicious Improbabilities

Answer 6

• if John wins an improbable lottery game, you would not assume that he, or someone on his behalf, cheated
• if John won the lottery game 3 consecutive times you would immediately be tempted to assume cheating as this event is ‘of a kind that is surprising in a way that warrants interference of design’
• that the universe is fine tunes for life is improbable in the same way John winning the lottery multiple times is
• if we are justified in inferring intelligent design in John’s lottery winnings, we are even more so in the case of the universe

Question 7

weakness of Schlesinger’s argument from suspicious improbabilities: empirical background facts

Answer 7

in the case of John and the lottery:
- already know intelligent agents with capacity to manipulate results exist
- know from past event such situations are usually explained by deliberate agency of such agents

in case of the universe we do not know these

Question 8

weakness of Schlesinger’s argument from suspicious improbabilities: lack of knowledge of the universe

Answer 8

• cannot prove life would not have arisen in different universe conditions
• physics speculates we are one universe in a ‘multiverse’ where all possible material universes are eventually realised (if this is the case, at least one had to have life, so does not warrant design that it is this one)