ABOO- Teleological

Question 1

What theology is the teleological argument?

Answer 1

Natural theology–> seeks to understand God through the world around us.

Question 2

Where does the word ‘Teleological’ come from?

Answer 2

Study of telos. Purpose.

Question 3

A priori or a posteriori?

Answer 3

a posteriori.

Question 4

When was William Paley alive?

Answer 4

1743-1805

Question 5

Quote for introduction:

Answer 5

Cicero–> ‘what could be more clear or obvious when we look up to the sky and contemplate the heavens, that there is some divinity or superior intelligence?’

Question 6

What is William Paley’s book?

Answer 6

Natural Theology

Question 7

What is Paley’s theory called?

Answer 7

Design qua Purpose.
World shows design and pattern and purpose, must have reason.
Anything designed must have a designer.

Question 8

What is Paley’s analogy?

Answer 8

Watch on a heath.
Intricately designed, shows designer.
Watchmaker.

Question 9

How does Paley justify POE?

Answer 9

The watch malfunctioning is irrelevant, it used to work and its very existence shows design.

Question 10

What is the second part to Paley’s argument?

Answer 10

Moves to nature–> the eye is so intricate.
‘Every manifestation of design, which exists in the watch, exists in the works of nature’.
Eye has ability to see, things in nature do work to a purpose.

Question 11

What does Paley described God as?

Answer 11

The ‘designing creator’

Question 12

What is the final stage to Paley’s argument?

Answer 12

Looks at the universe. So complex that it must have a creator.

Question 13

What is the second stage to Paley’s argument?

Answer 13

Design qua regularity.
Looking at the sky, the rotation of planets obey the same universal laws. Must be an external agent imposing these laws.

Question 14

What is important to note about St Thomas Aquinas’ timeline?

Answer 14

Existed BEFORE Paley.

Question 15

Aquinas quote:

Answer 15

‘Everything operates as to a design. This design is from God’.

Question 16

What is Aquinas’ book?

Answer 16

‘Summa Theologica’

Question 17

Which way of Aquinas’ is important to the Teleological argument?

Answer 17

Fifth Way.
Design qua Regularity.

Question 18

What does Aquinas say about Design qua Regularity?

Answer 18

Something regulates the universe, scientific laws are regular and predictable.
Objects follow natural laws and have a goal/purpose.

Question 19

What example did Aquinas use?

Answer 19

Arrow heading to its target, we presume an arrow is shot on purpose it cannot move on its own.
Planets are the same, a divine mind makes things reach their target.
‘This being we call God’.

Question 20

What are the arrow and the archer examples of?

Answer 20

‘Regularity of succession’.
Everything in nature follows certain laws that lead to certain results.

Question 21

What is the an_____ principle?

Answer 21

Anthropic principle.
‘Goldilocks argument’. The earth is so perfectly placed away from the sun (92 million miles) so we don’t freeze or burn up.
We also have the ozone layer, perfect distance and protective layer.

Question 22

What are FR Tennant’s arguments?

Answer 22

Anthropic principle.
Aesthetic argument.

Question 23

What is the aesthetic argument?

Answer 23

We enjoy and appreciate the beauty of our surroundings. Enjoying Shakespeare doesn’t help us survive, so this isn’t down to evolution. Some Divine Creator.

Question 24

How does Dawkins criticise the aesthetic argument?

Answer 24

Comes up with ‘Memes’ in ‘The Selfish Gene’.
Darwinian perspective, families are social groups, we band together in packs to make us stronger to survive.
If you didn’t have ‘memes’ (interests, hobbies), people wouldn’t want to interact with you.
Natural selection.

Question 25

What does Dawkins say about the Teleological argument?

Answer 25

‘No purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference’. Book- ‘Blind Watchmaker’.
Too cynical? Not appealing to say we live in an indifferent world.
People are not indifferent, Civil Rights Movement.

Question 26

What real example does Dawkins use to show the cynicism in the world?

Answer 26

Female digger wasp.
Stings caterpillar to paralyze it, lays eggs inside so it can eat the caterpillar alive.
What’s the point?

Question 27

Stephen Fry quotes:

Answer 27

‘Bone cancer in children, what’s that about?’
‘If he created this universe he is quite clearly a maniac’.

Question 28

Why can Stephen Fry be critiqued?

Answer 28

Too emotive, POE does not necessarily disprove God.
He may not be the typical theistic God, but may still be a God.
Cancer is living out its purpose.

Question 29

Give David Hume context:

Answer 29

Empiricist, using senses, going against teleological argument with the same approach.
Never directly criticising Paley- book wrote 20 years before his.

Question 30

What is David Hume’s book?

Answer 30

‘Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion’.

Question 31

What does Hume say about Paley’s watch on the heath analogy?

Answer 31

Weak connection, world is not mechanistic, it’s more organic, like a potato.

Question 32

What is the main basis to Hume’s argument?

Answer 32

Cannot guess the universe has a designer just because things in the universe show design (links to fallacy of composition, used to critique Aquinas’ Cosmological argument).

Question 33

Why does Hume think the world shows design?

Answer 33

Uses the Epicurean Hypothesis–> there is design but no God.
At beginning of time particles were in random motion, chaotic but eventually evolved into ordered system. Gradual design, not no designer.

Question 34

What is Charles Darwin’s book?

Answer 34

Origin of Species.

Question 35

What is the thesis of Darwin’s book?

Answer 35

Natural selection- specific features make animals survive longer and others die out. We evolve to better fit the planet.
Not God, evolution.
Disproves anthropic principle.