Design Argument

Question 1

What is the design argument ?

Answer 1

• also called teleological argument (telos meaning purpose) and it attempts to prove God’s existence by reference to the process of creation
• it’s an a posteriori argument because it uses empirical evidence, from our observations of the world, to show that Earth has a creator. Which is God

Question 2

What does William Paley argue in the argument from purpose ?

Answer 2

• argued that if we found a stone on a heath we would assume the stone had always been there but if we were to find a watch we would not assume it had always been there.
• this is because we would infer that the watch had been put together to fulfil a purpose
• Paley made an analogy between the watch and the natural world and found that the features observable are also observable in nature; everything seems to have been designed to fulfil a purpose
• Paley argues that the universe must have a designer

Question 3

What is a quote from paley to back this?

Answer 3

“When we come to inspect the watch, we perceive that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose… that the watch must have a maker”

Question 4

What does Hume argue against the design argument?

Answer 4

• our experience of the universe is limited. When we see a house, we can conclude that it had an architect or builder because we know this from experience. When we see a watch, we can conclude from experience that there is a watchmaker. We have no experiences of universes being designed or built, so we cannot infer the cause.
• argues the analogy doesn’t work because the universe is unique and cannot be compared to a watch.
• also, if the universe was designed, then it was designed poorly because no supreme designer would create a universe with so much suffering

Question 5

What is a quote from Hume?

Answer 5

“the world is very faulty and imperfect… it is the work only of some inferior deity”
- dialogues concerning natural religion

Question 6

What does Swinburne argue?

Answer 6

The argument from probability:
- the way the universe fits perfectly for the development of human life is just what would be expected from a loving creator
- God is the best explanation because of the providential nature of the universe, it contains everything necessary for human survival within it
- it’s possible to argue that God created laws which govern natural selection because, through them, human beings and animals would evolve.

• argues that:
  1) everything in the universe works together in an orderly way
  2) the orderly pattern of the universe is simple
  3) the easiest and most simple explanation for the universe is that it had a designer

Question 7

What is a quote to help back up Swinburne

Answer 7

“ the very success of science… provides strong grounds for believing that there is an even deeper cause of that order”

“God brunch omnipotent is able to produce a world… God being a perfectly good, is generous. He wants to share”

Question 8

What is the Anthropic principle?

Answer 8

John polkinghorn argued that:
- the beauty of the natural laws suggest that they did not just happen
- the universe is not fixed and unchanging, but that God interacts with creation by “conducting the improvised performance of the universe”
- the very existence of nature of the physical universe of proof of the existence of a designer.
- God is the “total explanation” for the design argument

Question 9

What is a quote from Polkinghorn to back up the Anthropic principle?

Answer 9

Testing God: killing the creator (1995)
- “it seems to be natural to believe that the rational order and beauty is an expressing of a divine mind, and the finely tuned fruitfulness is an expression of divine purpose”

Question 10

What is the aesthetic principle?

Answer 10

• F.R Tennant supported the design argument by claiming that:
  — the existance of an intelligent designer is found not just in the order of the universe, but in it’s beauty -> nature, music, art, literature
  — the universe is more that just orderly; it possesses a natural beauty beyond that which is necessary to live

Question 11

What is a quote from Tennant to back up the aesthetic principle ?

Answer 11

Book: ‘philosophical theology’, 1985
- “ nature is not just beautiful in places; it is saturated with beauty”

Question 12

What does Stephen Hawkins argue

Answer 12

• evolution could allow for the existence of God as an intelligent designer because evolution could be the mechanism through which God’s creation took place

Question 13

What does Aquinas argue in his fifth way?

Answer 13

-there is beneficial order in the universe i.e there are things in the universe that work towards an end or purpose
- this beneficial order could not happen by chance
- objects of not have the intelligence to world towards an end or purpose
- therefore, they must be directed by something that does have intelligence
- therefore, God exists

Question 14

What example does Aquinas use to prove his view?

Answer 14

-example of the archer and arrow
— an arrow cannot move without being directed by a being, the archer.
— this is the same as humans, they cannot move to fulfil their purpose without being directed by a superior being which is God.

Question 15

What is a quote to back up Aquinas’ view?

Answer 15

In summa theological he wrote:
- “ we see things which lack knowledge, such as natural bodies, act towards an end… not whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being… and this being we can, God”

Question 16

What does Charles Dawkins argue against the design argument ?

Answer 16

-book, ‘on the origin of species by means of natural selection’ (1859)
- Darwin claims he proves design argument wrong because:
1) life developed in evolutionary steps
2) living things change and adapt to fit in with the environment. The environment was not made by God for living things
3) there is too much suffering in the world for it to have been made by a kind and loving God

Question 17

What do critics of Darwin argue?

Answer 17

1) he fails to prove the question of why there is life at all
2) there are gaps in fossil records ,meaning that there is a lack of empirical evidence to support Darwin’s theory

Question 18

What does Richard Dawkins argue?

Answer 18

• the universe evolved as a series of chances
• the design of the universe does not show its purpose
• claimed that creation has nothing to do with Hod and that “we are so grotesquely lucky to be here”

Question 19

What is a quote that Dawkins argues?

Answer 19

In his book, the blind watchmaker (1986) Dawkins argues that natural selection does not require an intelligent designer:
- “natural selection… has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of the watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker”