Design argument Flashcards
What is the philosophical categorization of the design argument?
A posteriori and inductive.
Simply put, how does the design argument prove god?
Order and purpose evident within the universe show (the regularity of tides, the beauty of nature) that the universe is more then likely to have been created by an intelligent being.
What is Paley’s analogy of the watch?
If I walked upon a heath and found a rock, I would not question how it got there, but if I found a watch, I would question its being there as it is clear that the watch has been designed and has purpose.
What does the watch analogy prove?
Design qua purpose- in the same way that the watch has purpose, things within the universe appear to have purpose. Design qua regularity- in the same way that the watch has regular mechanisms and workings, the universe too appears regular and ordered. The watch has a watchmaker, so the universe must have a universe maker- god.
What is Aquinas’ 5th way?
The grand designer, within the universe unintelligent life seems to move toward some sort of end goal (an acorn will always grow into an oak, not a beech), this couldn’t happen without an intelligent designer to move the beings toward their purpose and from a state of potentiality to one of actuality.
What analogy does aquinas use in his 5th way?
The archer and the arrow, without the archer to guide it toward its purpose, the arrow is just a piece of wood. The same is true for unintelligent life which needs god to guide it toward its purpose.
Give four of Hume’s criticisms from ‘dialogues on natural religion’
- You can know nothing about cause from effect, just because the universe has things within it that have been designed, does not mean it has been. 2. We have experienced watches being made, but not universes, so can say nothing meaningful about it. 3. Like causes create like effects, would it not be more logical to posit a male and female creator god as opposed to just a male god? 4. The analogy is stronger the more alike the two things are, the natural universe is nothing like the mechanical watch and it would be better to compare it to something else natural like a carrot.
How did Swinburne argue for design?
Using Ockham’s razor, he argued from probability, when joined with the other arguments for his existence, the design argument significantly raises the likelihood of god’s existence.
Explain regularities of co presence
- Swinburne accepts that evolution is behind the complexity of the world, but argues that it follows particular laws in order to take place. 2. In order to survive, organisms have to exhibit spatial order. 3. Nature acts as a human making machine and produces us, we, in turn, produce machines that also make machines. 4. Ergo, in the same way that there is a creator of machines, there is a creator of nature- god.
Explain regularities of succession
- Within the world, there exists temporal order, the laws of nature are so absolute that one thing always follows another and we can use this to predict the future. 2. The best explanation explanation for this is an intelligent designer, human consciousness, intelligence and questioning are best explained by a god who created us with free will through a long process of evolution.
What is Tennant’s anthropic principle?
Also known as the Goldilocks principle, this is the idea that the conditions for the creation of the universe (the Big Bang) were so perfect to create our universe, yet the chance of this happening by chance is so low, this, combined with the balance of forces in the universe, are best explained by an intelligent designer.
What is the difference between the strong and weak anthropic principles?
The weak anthropic principle says that because we are here, the universe must have the properties necessary for human life. The strong anthropic principle says that it was necessary for the universe to have the properties it did, it was intelligently constructed and couldn’t have come about any other way.
What is the difference between deism and theism?
- Theists hold that god personally interacts with his creation. 2. Deists hold that god fine tuned the world and then left it to operate and evolve for itself.
What is an abductive argument?
Reasoning which produces a hypothesis from observation using the simplest and most likely explanation, Tennant and Swinburne use this.
Give three points against the anthropic principle
- It assumes humans are so special that the whole of creation was leading up to our arrival- any successful species would assume that the world had been specially adapted for them. 2. Order is in the eye of the beholder, the way that planets drift, collide and die could be seen as pointless, we could simply be seeing order where there is none. 3. Was it really necessary to have billion of years of experimentation just to create the human race?
