Teleological argument

Question 1

What is natural theology?

Answer 1

Using the world around you to conclude that God exists, through human reason

Question 2

Aquinas’ fifth way

Answer 2

Idea that the world is purposefully designed and did not come about through luck
‘not fortuitously but designedly’

Question 3

What is the ‘archery example’?

Answer 3

Without the archer giving purposeful direction, the arrow would not reach the target.
Archer = God
Arrow = Purpose
Target = Result

Question 4

Is natural theology a posteriori or a priori?

Answer 4

A posteriori

Question 5

The teleological argument is correct

Answer 5

• What we observe can be hard to deny as this is concrete evidence.
• Experience is universal to everyone.
• It fits in with ideas of human reason through natural theology.
• It does not directly oppose science and could therefore be compatible with it.
• The earth and body seem to be designed in a certain way so that they work.

Question 6

The teleological argument is flawed

Answer 6

• It does not conclude to a Christian God - it could be any.
• The presence of evil in the world would imply that there could be a ‘cruel designer’. Does a designer mean everything has to be perfect?
• Aquinas makes the assumption that everything needs a designer
• Evolution suggests that natural processes can be explained without needing a goal - it is simply about genetics and environment.

Question 7

What is Paley’s watchmaker analogy?

Answer 7

If we came across a watch on the ground we would not assume that it just came there randomly - it would have had to be designed.
He used this observation to conclude that God must be an intentional designer of everything.

Question 8

Criticisms of the watchmaker analogy

Answer 8

• What if no one has ever seen a watch be made?
• What if the watch does not work properly?
• You cannot compare a watch to the world, this is a fallacy of composition.

Question 9

What does Isaac Newton say about God being a designer?

Answer 9

‘In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence’

Question 10

What does Isaac Newton mean in his statement?

Answer 10

God could have purposefully designed everyone differently.

Question 11

Proof that the earth could have been designed

Answer 11

• It is close enough to the sun to be warm
• There is a variety of biodiversity
• Earth is the only planet known with life
• Water can survive all three forms

Question 12

Dawkins’ criticism of the teleological argument

Answer 12

He argues that the world does not have to have a God just because things are ‘so beautiful and elegant and so apparently purposeful’.
He instead supports Darwin and evolution.

Question 13

How does Paley respond to criticisms of chance?

Answer 13

He says that you could not throw all the parts of a watch into the air and expect the watch to function - design is more convincing to argue than chance.

Question 14

What is Tennant’s Anthropic Principle?

Answer 14

The universe seems so purposefully designed to fit human life that it appears to be ‘suspicious’.

Question 15

Hume’s criticism of Paley

Answer 15

Argues that the analogy between the world and a watch it too weak as conclusions cannot be made about them working in the same way.

Argues that order in the world does not mean that there has to be a ‘greater orderer’

Question 16

What does Hume say about chance?

Answer 16

The self-sustaining order o0f the world could have come about by chance. Creatures that are not fit for their purpose simply do not survive.

Question 17

Why is the teleological argument a fallacy of composition?

Answer 17

It makes too big of an assumption to suggest that the world works the same way other things do.