Argument for God's existence - Design Argument

Question 1

a posteriori arguments: the teleological argument

Answer 1

The word teleological comes from the Greek word telos, meaning goal or purpose. The world and things in it seem to move towards certain goals or ends.

Question 2

a posteriori arguments

Answer 2

Arguments based on observation are called in Latin a posteriori arguments.

These have a prominent place in the philosophy of religion.

Aquinas’ five ways are all a posteriori as he did not believe an a priori argument (an argument based purely on logic or deduction) for God would be valid.

This was a consequence of the epistemology (theory of knowledge) that he had inherited from Aristotle.

Question 3

efficient and final causes

Answer 3

Aristotelian-Thomistic scholars (working in the tradition of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas) say that efficient causality is unthinkable without final causality.
- Efficient causes change things or bring them into existence (e.g. heat is the efficient cause of the melting of ice and phosphorous in a match head is the efficient cause of the flame on a match).
- Final causes are just the outcome of these causes – the water/the flame. When we talk about telos, we mean these final causes.

Question 4

what does the ancient Greek word telos mean

Answer 4

goal or purpose

Question 5

efficient and final causes - melting ice example

Answer 5

Efficient causes change things or bring them into existence. Final causes are just the outcome of these causes. In the example of the melting of ice…

the efficient cause is heat
the final cause is water

Question 6

The teleological argument: Aquinas’ Fifth Way

Answer 6

Teleological arguments go all the way back to Plato. Plato proposed that the cosmos is directed by intelligence.

Question 7

aquinas’s fifth way

Answer 7

Aquinas’ fifth way uses the observation that non-intelligent organic life acts in certain ordered, cyclical and purposive ways. For example:
- Given the right conditions, acorns always grow into oak trees and not wombats.
- The moon has a regular 29 and a half-day cycle.

Question 8

acting goals & intelligence

Answer 8

The fact that non-intelligent things (like acorns and plankton) always act in certain ways for certain goals implies that they were given those goals by intelligence because only intelligent beings can assign a purpose to things and move that thing towards its purpose.

Question 9

archery example

Answer 9

Aquinas gives the example of arrows fired by an archer to hit a target.
- Without the archer giving the purposive direction, the arrow would remain in the quiver.

A simplified version of the argument might say that the order and purpose we see in the universe needs an explanation in terms of a guiding intelligence.

Question 10

Aquinas’s fifth way

Answer 10

The argument can be put like this:
- The natural world obeys natural laws.
- Natural things flourish as they obey these laws.
- Things without intelligence can’t direct themselves.
- Therefore, things without intelligence require something with intelligence to direct them to their goals.
- This is God.

Question 11

whats the Latin term for arguement based on observation

Answer 11

a posteriori arguments

Question 12

what analogy does Aquinas use for his fifth way argument

Answer 12

the archery

Question 13

what are the efficient and final causes

Answer 13

final causes are the outcome of change

efficient causes change things or bring them into existence

Question 14

William Paley’s Design Argument

Answer 14

William Paley uses the complexity of design in his argument

Question 15

Paley’s design argument

Answer 15

If someone found a rock on the ground, they would not need to ask how the rock got there – they would assume natural causes.

But if someone found a watch on the ground, the previous answer would not work – that the watch had always been there. They would assume a designer.

This is because of the complexity and inherent purpose of the watch – it has been put together in a complex manner to tell the time.

The universe is much more complex and ordered. So the universe must have a designer.

Question 16

counter-teleological arguments

Answer 16

Both teleological arguments ‘beg the question’.
- Aquinas assumes all things need a designer to conclude that God designed everything.
- Paley gives the example of a watch, something which we know has been designed, as an analogy for the world, whose design is the thing in question.

Hume said that analogy can only compare similar things. The watch is not similar to the universe. As the universe seems organic, why not compare something organic, like a cabbage?

The universe is not like all the other things we can experience.

A watch has many designers usually – why not the universe?

The universe could have come about randomly and still look designed, given enough time. Philo’s Epicurean hypothesis (the world is the chance arrangements of atoms) is relevant.

The presence of evil and suffering in the universe prompts us to ask what kind of designer it has.
- Eg. Dawkins’ Digger Wasp example (a particularly cruel example of suffering in the natural world).

Question 17

which animal featured in Dawkins’ experiment, showing suffering in nature

Answer 17

bee

Question 18

evolutionary challenges to the design argument

Answer 18

There are some major challenges that Darwin’s theory of evolution has thrown up against the design argument. Here are the most important:
- complexity and order are natural
- suffering in evolutionary processes
- no need for a goal

Question 19

complexity and order are natural

Answer 19

Random changes can lead to order and complex systems can be self-arranging – this is the upshot of the nature of evolution, in which organisms which adapt to their environments can pass on their genes more effectively than ones that can’t.

So there is no need to appeal to a divine intelligence to account for complexity and ‘order’ – they arise ‘naturally’ from the processes of evolution and natural selection.

Question 20

suffering in evolutionary processes

Answer 20

Dawkins and Atkins point to profound suffering and cruelty in the processes of evolution.

• For example, the female digger wasp lays her eggs in a caterpillar so that the larva can eat the insides as they grow. She also stings it to paralyse it so it is alive as they are eating it

Question 21

no need for a goal

Answer 21

Evolution challenges the Aristotelian account of causation which includes telos or purpose as it shows that natural processes can be explained without the need to refer to a goal.

Question 22

which two scientists draw attention to profound suffering and cruelty in the processes of evolution

Answer 22

dawkins
atkins

Question 23

dawkins & atkins’ counter argument: cruelty in evolution

Answer 23

The female digger wasp lays her eggs in a caterpillar so that the larva can eat the insides as they grow. She also stings it to paralyse it so it is alive as they are eating it

Question 24

Hume’s criticisms of the teleological argument

Answer 24

David Hume saw the following faults in the teleological argument.

unsound analogy
one of many arguments
problems with man-made energy
imperfect & immoral God

Question 25

unsound analogy

Answer 25

Analogies are stronger the more alike the two things being compared are.

In the case of the design argument, Hume claims that the world and the watch are very unlike each other.

The world is composed of organic and mineral matter, so it is not like a machine and more like an organism.

Question 26

one of many argument

Answer 26

Hume says that the governing principle of the world could be one of many such as generation or gravity - and these would work equally as well as intelligence

There might not even be one supreme governing principle but many, each in charge of their own domain.

Question 27

problems with man-made analogy

Answer 27

The analogy of a man-made thing is bound to lead to the conclusion that the universe was designed. But Hume points out that we already have experience or knowledge of watches or houses being made, and so this just begs the question when it comes to the universe.

The analogy of a man-made thing also implies a human-like God (like effects imply like causes), but this causes problems as God is meant to be infinite in His qualities.

Question 28

imperfect and immoral God

Answer 28

A perfect God cannot be inferred from the state of the universe.

As Hume says: “The world is very faulty and imperfect, and was only the first rude essay of some infant deity who abandoned it”.

Analogy leads to a non-moral God.
- One should judge the craftsman on the quality of the work they produce – earthquakes and illness do not imply a just God. There could be two gods or forces: a good and an evil. That would explain far better the state of the universe.

Question 29

what does the design argument suggest God is like, in Hume’s opinion

Answer 29

imperfect
immoral