The Design Argument Flashcards
Aquinas’ analogy to illustrate the idea of design qua regularity
an arrow being directed by an archer; the word being directed by an intelligent being (God) towards a directed end
a posteriori
empirical, from experience
evidence
- order evident in the universe
- universe is not self-ordering
- therefore, order is imposed from outside
- only intelligent beings can impose order
- therefore, God ordered the universe
Cicero quote
‘what could be more clear or obvious when we look up to the sky and contemplate the heavens, than that there is some divinity of superior intelligence?
arguments from design
- analogical
- probability
Aquinas’ Five Ways
- motion
- causation
- contingency
- degrees of perfection
- teleological
20th Century support for Paley’s argument - Arthur Brown
‘the ozone gas later is a mighty proof of the creator’s forethought… a wall which prevents death to every living thing, just the right thickness and exactly the correct defence’
inductive
can’t prove the conclusion is true even if the premises are right
- evidence isn’t proof
Paley watchmaker analogy
since the complexity and design in a watch infers a maker, similarly, the complexity and design in the universe tells us that there must be a designer
this designer must have a mind because they need to have a plan for the end purpose for everything to fit together
- NATURE DISPLAYS PURPOSE AND REGULARITY
used the accommodation of an eye as an example
Paley’s three cheerleader arguments about the general effect
- you don’t need to have seen the creation of the watch to believe there was a maker behind it
– 5/10. natural things grow bc of their cycle - imperfections in product doesn’t ruin intention
–3/10. god is supposed to be omnibenevolent (e.g. babies dying at birth)
:goes against Hume’s argument that the imperfections in the world suggests it is the work of an inferior deity - there may be some parts of the watch you don’t know about, but there is still a purpose for them.
–8/10. limited scientific knowledge
telos
what if the world isn’t going towards a goal
Hume quote
‘only the first rude essay of some infant deity, who afterwards abandoned it, ashamed of his lame performance’
‘how hostile and destructive to each other!’
Hume
- God is beyond human understanding and to liken His attributes to those of humans in danger of anthropomorphising God
however:
- incarnation
- principle of accommodation
- personal
Hume and analogy not being appropriate
can’t use an analogy to describe workings of universe: other analogies are plausible, but if adopted would not point towards the existence of a designer God
‘the rotting of a turnip, the generation of an animal, and the structure of human thought’
Hume and self-ordering
suggests that the Epicurean Hypothesis (chaotic matter will fall into order of its own accord, without having a design) is a plausible explanation for the purpose evident in the world as the design hypothesis
the analogy between God and a human designer is anthropomorphic
- principle of accommodation
- God is supposed to be intimate and personal
- humans were created in the image of God, God gave humans reasoning
analogy points towards a team, rather than one single designer
- God is omnipotent
- Ockham’s razor: ‘never multiply entities beyond necessity’
the existence of evil would suggest that there is no benevolent God
soul - making
the universe might be self-ordering/ Epicurean Hypothesis
- God created this: Goldilocks hypothesis that everything has to be just right
Swinburne’s argument from design
- chemical laws
- biological laws: offspring and varied characterises, competition for survival
- ‘simple laws govern almost all successions of events’: order is v specific and purposeful
- ‘conformity to formula’
- coincidence that these patterns can be recognized and described by men?
-‘ the order is there in nature so nature’s future conformity is to be expected’, independent of men
- more order than necessary (humans could live with less order) so humans can understand. (This opposes the anthropic principle.)
- card shuffling analogy:
‘no less extraordinary and in need of explanation’: the laws need explanation, not that humans are here
richard dawkin
the blind watchmaker:
- natural selection has no purpose in mind: ‘It has no mind. It does not plan for the future.’
The Anthropic Principle, Tennant. pro God
everything has to be just right for humans to be her understanding
the weak anthropic principle: if the world hadn’t been just so, we wouldn’t be here to see it
the strong: the world is geared up for the emergence of intelligent life
The Aesthetic Principle. Tennant v Dutton
‘beauty seems to be superfluous and to have little survival value’
- loads of beauty
- must have been designed since evolutionary science cannot account for their development
Dutton:
- origins in sexual selection
- hand-eye coordination, fine motor control, intelligence, creativity, access to rare materials, the ability to learn difficult skills, and lots of free time: high-fitness qualities - MILLER 2000
- display of element producing rather than what it contains.
- hand axes is the earliest forms of art
responses to Darwin/ Dawkins
- intelligent design - the theory of evolution is wrong
- God may have caused the process of evolution as a means of bringing order and purpose into the universe (Sadowsky)
- Evolution depends on a careful balance of conditions, which were caused by God (Tennant, Swinburne)
Tenant’s anthropic principle RUM
- world can be Rationally analysed
- although Unlikely, the inorganic world does in fact provide the basic necessities needed to sustain life
- the progress of evolution is destined towards the emergence of intelligent huMan life
Swinburne and probability brief
- the chances of intelligent human life developing must have been very slim, God is the likely cause of this outcome
- uses the analogy of the kidnapper, his victim and the random-card shuffling machine to illustrate this
the card-shuffling machine
- something extraordinary in need of explanation in ten aces of hearts being drawn
- order rather than disorder is there
