The Design Argument

Question 1

Philosophy definition

Answer 1

The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.

Question 2

Etymology of Philosophy

Answer 2

‘Philo’ is Ancient Greek for ‘love’

‘Sophia’is the Ancient Greek word for ‘wisdom’

Question 3

Types of reasoning

Answer 3

A posteriori: Reasoning based on evidence from our observation of the world. Truth claims which come from experience of the senses and knowledge

A priori: Without experience; does not rely on the evidence of the senses, but on logical arguments

Necessary truths are necessary because they are knowable a priori. They hold true in all cases.

An statement that we have to test to see wether it holds true for future cases is a contingent statement, a posteriori.

Question 4

A priori

Answer 4

A priori means ‘what comes before’.
Does not depend on experience for its justification; we only need to think about it.
We do not need any prior knowledge of the external world or examine our own experiences to recognise that it is true.
It only requires reason.

Question 5

A posteriori

Answer 5

A posteriori means ‘what comes after’. Another word for this is ‘empirical’.
Depends upon evidence that can only be gained through experience for its justification.
We need to use the evidence of our senses, our sense-experience.

Question 6

The design argument

Answer 6

(AKA teleological argument, Telos means order) is an A posteriori argument which claims that as the universe is so complex, it must have a designer. The most famous version of this was written by William Paley in ‘Natural Theology (1802). He was a liberal theologian, slavery abolition campaigner and teacher.
If complex, manufactured objects have designers, then so do natural ones. The only entity who could have designed the universe is God.

Question 7

The watchmaker analogy

Answer 7

If you found a rock on the ground, you may assume that it had always been there. However, if you found something as complex as a watch, you would assume that somebody had deliberately created it to have had a purpose; it would require further explanation.

Paley made an analogy between the watch and the natural world. The features of the watch have functions as do the various parts of the natural universe.

As it is unreasonable to assume that the watch doesn’t have a creator, it is unreasonable to suggest that the universe doesn’t either. Therefore, God exists.

Question 8

Natural Theology Watchmaker analogy quotes

Answer 8

“suppose I pitched my foot against a stone and were asked how the stone came to be there”
“I might possibly answer…it had lain there forever”
“But suppose I had found a watch…I should hardly think of the answer I had before given”

Question 9

Anthropomorphism

Answer 9

The tendency for humans to apply to human traits to non-human entities. We often do this with God by saying that we are made “in his own image”.

Question 10

Features of the universe that suggest there is an intelligent designer

Answer 10

order: objects and scientific laws operate in a regular way
the universe provides what is necessary for life
purpose: objects in the universe all appear to have a purpose
aesthetics: the beauty of nature suggests that it was intended for something beyond survival

Question 11

The two forms of the design argument

Answer 11

analogical: an argument based on analogies or similarities, for example: seeing the link between the world and objects of human design.

inductive: based on the premises and conclusions, for example: the universe shows order and must have been designed

Question 12

Aquinas’ fifth way

Answer 12

consists of five premises:
there is beneficial order
order cannot exist by chance
inanimate objects work towards an end (telos)
the objects must be directed by something intelligent
CONCLUSION: the director is God

Question 13

St Thomas Aquinas

Answer 13

(1225-1274)
Well regarded medieval philosopher and catholic theologian
supporter of the design argument
in his masterwork ‘summa theologica’ (1274) he set out five ways of proving that God exists. The Fifth Way is the design argument

It is mainly an argument from design. He refers to the existence of design without proving that design exists. The focus of the argument seems to be that God put design there. It assumes that there is design.

Question 14

The Fifth way quotes

Answer 14

“they achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly”
“whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards the end, unless it be directed”
“the arrow is directed by the archer”
“this being we call God”

Question 15

Strengths of Aquinas’ Fifth Way

Answer 15

A posteriori, based on observations of the natural world
objects without intelligence work towards an end, “it is clear that they achieve their end”

Question 16

Weaknesses of Aquinas’ Fifth way

Answer 16

it is logically unsound, evidence for beneficial order cannot be explained by God, they could just be by chance

The universe does not establish intelligence in its own right. Aquinas assumes that all things in the natural world have a purpose or are aimed at a goal, yet he shows no example of a natural object which does this.

Archers and arrows are not natural

Question 17

David Hume

Answer 17

18th century Scottish Philosopher of the enlightenment school. wrote on empiricism, causation, the problem of induction, skepticism, ethics and aesthetics.

Question 18

Other David Hume arguments against the Design argument

Answer 18

Argued the teleological argument weak. The universe is too unique to be compared to anything manmade, such as a watch. We have no certain knowledge of the universe like we do with watches.

We cannot know that everything (including the universe itself) has a purpose.

Anthropomorphism only serves to limit God’s power.

The universe, if it was designed, has been very poorly as there is much suffering.

Question 19

Anthony Flew

Answer 19

20th century English philosopher. Worked on the philosophy of religion and belonged to the analytic and evidential schools of thought. Argued that we should presuppose atheism.

Question 20

Anthony Flew’s response to the design argument (the parable of the invisible gardener)

Answer 20

Parable of the invisible gardener: two explorers find a clearing in the jungle containing both flowers and weed. One imagines that there is a gardener while the other disagrees. They test to see if there is evidence of any gardener and the explorer which originally believed in one has changed their view, claiming that the gardener is “invisible, intangible, insensible [to their testing]”
The second explorer asks that if there is no visible and tangible gardener, is there one at all.
It is an analogy for how the world, theists and atheists, argue the existence of God. As we can’t detect God, are we only guessing that he exists?

Question 21

Voltaire and his response to the Design argument

Answer 21

A French enlightenment writer, philosopher, satirist and historian.

Argued that the teleological argument suggested clearly that there is a creator, but not necessarily an omnipotent, omniscient God as we might imagine.
In his ‘Traite de metaphysique’ he argued this idea.

Question 22

Charles Darwin and his response to the Design argument

Answer 22

in his book ‘on origin of species by means of natural selection’ (1859) he offered the theory of evolution
‘The descent of man’ (1871) led to Darwin’s supporters claiming that the design argument was wrong because:
-life developed in evolutionary steps
-living things adapt to the environment which wasn’t made for living beings
-There is too much suffering for there to be an omni-benevolent God.

Question 23

Richard Dawkins and his response to the Design argument

Answer 23

British evolutionary biologist and author.
Argued that the universe developed as a series of chances. The design of the universe doesn’t prove purpose
2006 program ‘the root of all evil’ he said that “we are so grotesquely lucky to be here”
his criticism of the fifth way is that there isn’t necessarily a design.
He talked about a “blind watchmaker”, telling us that design, despite complexity, needn’t be deliberate.

Question 24

Richard Swinburne

Answer 24

Professor in the philosophy of the Christian religion at Oxford from 1985-2002.
Has been influential in arguing for the existence of God, most notably in his most accessible work ‘is there a God’ (1996)

Question 25

Richard Swinburne on the design argument

Answer 25

argued strongly in support of the design argument
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 for this creator because of the universe- it contains everything necessary for human survival within it
the fact that we wouldn’t exist if the universe had not been created this way suggests that it was designed for us

Question 26

(Richard Swinburne on Design) Regularities of succession

Answer 26

Temporal order: how laws of nature always involve one thing leading to another in predictable orders or “regularities of succession”.

Question 27

(Richard Swinburne on Design) Order and probability (includes goldilocks principle)

Answer 27

The size and complexity of the universe makes it seem unlikely that it came about by chance. The laws of nature are so consistent that it is more likely that there is a God than it is that there is not.

F.R. Tennant, in 1930, said that the probability that the events required for the universe to exist happened by chance is so low that it is more likely that there was a guiding hand.

Goldilocks principle: The conditions for the creation of the universe are just right for intelligent life.

Question 28

(Richard Swinburne on Design) Regularities of co-presence

Answer 28

in ‘The existence of God’ (1979) he refers to regularities of co-presence
-There is evidence that evolution led to our world, but evolution requires particular natural laws. Organisms have to exhibit spacial order, meaning that their parts work well together.
-Nature acts as a human-making machine and we learn our machine making ability from nature (made in “his own image” means we have his intelligence) and then we make our own machines

Question 29

(David Hume on Design) Unsound analogy

Answer 29

-we compare that which is limited to that which is infinite
-it isn’t clear wether the analogy refers to Earth or to the universe in general
-there aren’t many strong similarities between the watch and the universe

Question 30

(David Hume on Design) Other explanations for apparent order

Answer 30

-“Epicurean Hypothesis”: given eternity, a finite number of particles will eventually form some kind of equilibrium
-the result of this is our present reality which bares no mark of a divine loving creator
-if we see the world “as it really is-very faulty and incorrect” we can see the redundancy of the design argument

Question 31

(David Hume on Design) It leads to a non-moral God

Answer 31

God allows suffering and evil meaning that he can’t be both omnipotent and omnibenevolent

Question 32

(David Hume on Design) Makes God more human than divine

Answer 32

-comparing God to a human designer only limits him
-humans cannot produce anything that compares to nature
-comparing God to humans implies that God is non-moral and limited
-the amount of suffering and imperfection in the universe gives the impression that God has “abandoned” his “lame performance” and has “run on from the first impulse and active force which he gave it” because of the mistakes within it.
-we know we are limited and therefore we cannot create an analogy between ourselves and an infinite being

Question 33

(David Hume on Design) Other possible analogies

Answer 33

-the universe is not like a machine and nor does it act like one
-machines are often made by several hands so this analogy would be better used in suggesting that there are several Gods
-a better analogy would be a vegetable or an animal; these are more compatible with the findings of science as they are in a constant state of development and decay

Question 34

(David Hume on Design) similar effects do not necessarily mean similar causes

Answer 34

-custom has taught us that seemingly designed objects have designers
-we do not have sufficient understanding of creation to conclude that there is a designer
-what one can infer a posteriori form living in a universe cannot be applied to discussions regarding the creation of a universe because we have no experience of this

Question 35

F.R. Tennant’s Anthropic Principle

Answer 35

The universe exists to accommodate for intelligent life. Human life can only exist because of the very precise features of the universe created by many series of events and, in 1930, Tennant wrote that the chances of these events happening by chance is so low that there must have been a guiding hand. The idea that random chance has created the universe stretches the imagination too far to explain why the universe is “fine-tuned” for humans too survive.

This is an abductive argument

Question 36

The two forms of the Anthropic principle

Answer 36

The Weak Anthropic principle states that because we are here, the universe must have the properties necessary for life: if it didn’t, we wouldn’t be here. However, this does not explain why the universe is the way it is.

The Strong Anthropic principle states that it was necessary for the universe to have the properties it does, the fine tunings in its creation, and that these did not just happen but were necessary. The universe was intelligently constructed and could not have come into being another way.

Question 37

Swinburne on the Anthropic Principle

Answer 37

The complexity of the universe makes it difficult to believe that there is not a designer at work.

Science can only use scientific law to explain phenomena, but science provides no explanation for the existence of scientific law. We should understand scientific laws in terms of a purpose which has been put in place for them.

Question 38

Ockham’s Razor

Answer 38

The idea that the simple answer is probably the best one.

Question 39

The Aesthetic Principle (also developed by Tennant)

Answer 39

Challenges evolutionary theories presented to Christians about creation.

Evolutionary theory argued that creatures adapt to their environment in order to survive. The aesthetic argument claimed that humans have the ability to appreciate the appearance of their surroundings. This does not necessarily aid our survival and therefore can’t be a result of natural selection.

Question 40

Richard Dawkins on the Aesthetic Principle

Answer 40

Dawkins argue that we appreciate beauty because of “memes” which are genes which pass on cultural experience. He believes that memes are caused by mutations in the mind and are then inherited by succeeding generations.

Question 41

J.S Mill against the Aesthetic Principle

Answer 41

The Christian idea of God would mean that everyone’s suffering was proportionate to the quality of their deeds.

Nature doesn’t work for the good of humanity as what good we have we have given to ourselves. Anything in nature that indicates beneficent design only shows the beneficence to be limited.

All humans suffer, wether they are good or bad. Nature never rewards noble acts, but sometimes punishes them.

To summarise, nature is not beautiful as it can almost be seen to work against humans.

Question 42

Abductive argument

Answer 42

An argument which uses the end result to explain why it occurred.