Teleological Argument

Question 1

Aquinas - Fifth Way

Answer 1

Intelligence.
Something which lacks intelligence cannot move towards cannot move towards fulfilling a useful end unless something with intelligence has moved it. The fact that things in the universe tend to follow this yet are not intelligent suggests they have been directed by something else. God

Question 2

Paley’s watchmaker - analogy of complex design

Answer 2

There is evidence of complexity in the universe and those would seem to point out that it was designed by a being of intelligence as if we found a watch we would come to a conclusion that it was designed by an intelligent being due to it’s complexity even if we did not understand what some parts of the watch actually did.

Question 3

Tennant’s Anthropic Argument

Answer 3

The fact that the natural world we live in provides what is necessary for life to be sustained.
The fact the world can not only be observed but holds itself up for rational analysis from which we can deduce its workings.
The fact that evolution, natural selection, has led to intelligent human life which can analyse the universe it lives in.

Question 4

Tennant’s Aesthetic Argument

Answer 4

The fact that human beings seem to have natural appreciation for things of beauty. Why is it in our nature?
We are the only species which seem to do this.
If a purely rational approach was taken only things that are necessary for survival would matter and the natural world operates on a survival of the fittest mechanism and yet we have an appreciation of beauty.