Teleological argument

Question 1

What is the teleological argument?

Answer 1

the argument that the evidence of purpose and regularity in the universe suggests that there is a designer God

Question 2

is it a priori or a posteriori?

Answer 2

a posteriori - based on experience and observation

Question 3

What is Aquinas’ 5th way?

Answer 3

Argues design qua regularity and purpose - inanimate bodies work in a regular way towards a purpose, and they have no rational powers so must be directed to this purpose by an external power

Question 3

what example does aquinas use to explain his 5th way?

Answer 3

He gives the example of an arrow and an archer. The arrow cannot guide itself. It needs the archer to guide it. The archer is God and the arrow stands for inanimate objects.

Question 4

Why did Laplace conclude that God is not needed?

Answer 4

The universe is like a machine. All the parts fit together in order to cause movement. Eventually all natural laws of the universe will be known and science will explain everything. God will not be needed for explanation.

Question 5

What is Paley’s example of the watch on the heath?

Answer 5

Paley claimed that if you came across a watch on a heath and had never seen it before, you would notice that it is very intricate and all the parts work together in order to form a purpose. Even if the watch did not work perfectly, You would have to conclude that the watch had not come about by chance but had a designer. He said the same was true of the world. All the parts work so well together to form a purpose that, like the watch, the world could not have come together by chance but must have a designer-God.

Question 6

What did Paley say about the eye?

Answer 6

Paley claimed that the eye was designed for the purpose of seeing and its complex design suggests an intelligent designer. Likewise, the intricate mechanisms of the human body suggest an intelligent designer. Paley also referred to the lacteal system-the number of teats in each species is found to bear the proportion to the number of the young. All of this evidence points to a designing creator-God.

Question 7

How did Paley prove design qua regularity?

Answer 7

Paley used evidence from astronomy and Newton’s law’s of motion and gravity to prove design in the universe. The rotation of the planets in the solar system and how these obey universal laws. This could not have come about by chance. An external agent must have imposed order on the universe and this agent is God

Question 8

What did Arthur Brown point to as evidence of design?

Answer 8

The ozone layer

Question 9

What is the anthropic principle?

Answer 9

The cosmos is constructed for the development of intelligent life. If there had been just a minute change, then any life at all would have been unlikely to develop on earth.

Question 10

What did Tennant argue?

Answer 10

○ The fact that the world can be analysed in a rational manner points to a divine designer.
○ The way that the inorganic world has provided the basic necessities required for sustaining life points to a divine designer.
○ The progress of evolution towards the emergence of intelligent human life points to a divine designer.

Question 11

What is Tennant’s aesthetic principle?

Answer 11

The universe is not only ordered but beautiful at all levels. Humans can appreciate this beauty but this appreciation is not necessary for survival or development of life. This points to a divine designer.

Question 12

What did Behe argue?

Answer 12

Intelligent design and irreducible complexity. Human eye could not have evolved. If you take a part away it would not work. All the parts have to have come together at the same time for the eye to work and that needs an intelligent designer

Question 13

How did Hume criticise the argument? (Gods)

Answer 13

○ Why conclude that design in the universe is from the classical theistic God. Surely it could be the work of several lesser Gods, or an apprentice God who has moved on to create bigger and better worlds.

Question 14

How did Hume criticise the argument? (flaws)

Answer 14

○ The designer could not be infinite and perfect because of the evidence of flaws in the world e.g suffering and death.

Question 15

How did Hume criticise the argument? (experience)

Answer 15

○ Humans do not have sufficient knowledge and experience of the creation of the world to conclude that there is only one designer. We only have experience of things we have created and designed. This is too limited to draw similar conclusions about the creation and design of the world.

Question 16

How did Hume criticise the argument? (vegetable)

Answer 16

○ The universe is more like a vegetable than a machine as it grows of its own accord rather than being something which is made by hand. So the watch analogy is weak.

Question 17

How did Hume criticise the argument? (Paley’s watch)

Answer 17

○ The watch analogy is weak. Likening God to the designer of a watch is wrong because God transcends human understanding. Also, machines are regularly made by many people, so the analogy would better suggest that many Gods designed the world.

Question 18

How did Hume criticise the argument? (epicurean hypothesis)

Answer 18

○ If the world is ordered, then this could be due to chance. His Epicurean Hypothesis-as the universe is eternal, in this unlimited time, it was inevitable that random particles would form a constantly ordered state.

Question 19

How did Mill criticise the argument?

Answer 19

There is a lot of cruelty in nature e.g. the way that a cat plays with the mouse before it kills it. This does not suggest a benevolent God who created nature!

Question 20

How did Darwin criticise the argument?

Answer 20

This world looks well designed due to natural selection and survival of the fittest. A lucky, chance mutation of genes enables some living organisms to have advantageous features which enables them to survive. They pass this advantage onto their off spring. Thus, everything will always look well designed for its environment. Nature is the designer, not God.

Question 21

How did Dawkins criticise the argument?

Answer 21

There is no such thing as irreducible complexity. Evolution can explain the eye. It existed in the past in a much simpler form e.g. light sensitive cells and over millions of years, evolved to be as it is today. All different stages of the evolution of the eye can still be seen in the animal kingdom e.g. snail’s eye vs human eye.

Question 22

How does Polkinghorne respond to Hume?

Answer 22

• Professor Polkinghorne give the analogy that if you were rowed up in front of a firing squad and they all aimed and missed, you would never conclude that this was chance. Likewise-the anthropic principle states that so many different factors had to happen for life to begin on earth that you could not conclude that this was chance. (Tennant would support this).

Question 23

How would Hick and Irenaeus respond to Hume?

Answer 23

• There may be a good reason why God designed suffering. Hick and Irenaeus would argue that it is to develop humans and their virtues.

Question 24

What is a response to Hume’s argument that the world is like a vegetable?

Answer 24

• Vegetable still needs a creator – so proves that there is still a designer. Anything that grows needs an external force to keep it alive (water, nutrients etc.)- that exterior force for the Earth could be God.

Question 25

How could you respond to Hume’s criticism of Paley’s watch?

Answer 25

• Incorrect assumption about the world being like a watch – Paley was actually suggesting that the world is like a watch because all the parts work together – do not need to extend analogy to the extent of how many people created it, not Paley’s original intention.

Question 26

How could you respond to Hume’s criticism about lacking experience?

Answer 26

• If we don’t have enough knowledge about the creation of the universe then surely no-one can make a statement – including Hume. Therefore, all Hume’s theories should not be accepted, based on Hume’s point that Human’s have insufficient knowledge. There may still be a possibility that design argument is truth.

Question 27

How could you respond to Hume’s epicurean hypothesis?

Answer 27

• Where did the particles originally come from in the Epicurean hypothesis? Everything needs a beginning; these particles may have come from God.

Question 28

How did Craig respond to Hume?

Answer 28

Infinity does not make sense. This is because you cannot add to infinity e.g. if you have a library with infinite books and you add a book, you still have infinite books. If the universe was infinite, you could not add events to it but we do. Therefore, it is not infinite and so there is no such thing as infinite time. The Epicurean hypothesis fails.

Question 29

How could religious believers respond to Hume?

Answer 29

• Religious believers would rarely base their view that God designed the world purely on observation. They also use revelation of scripture. This was the view of Aquinas. Genesis 1 and 2 speaks of God creating and designing the world. Believers have faith in this revelation and use it alongside their observations.

Question 30

How could you argue that Hume is committing the naturalistic fallacy?

Answer 30

• Philosophy often works by drawing conclusions about causes which can’t be seen. E.g. Aristotle and the prime mover. If it did not, then it would limit truth about causes to this empirical world which is to make the assumption that truth only lies in this world which may be wrong-the naturalistic fallacy