The Design Argument

Question 1

Who created the DA as an argument for the existence of God?

Answer 1

William Paley

Question 2

a posteriori

Answer 2

Based on sense experience
We observe the world through touch, taste, hearing, smell and sight
We draw conclusions for what our senses tell us

Question 3

Inductive

Answer 3

Where we use premises to supply strong evidence for the truth of the conclusion.

Question 4

What is Paley’s conclusion?

Answer 4

The universe is designed is at best probably true but it might turn out to be false.

Question 5

What 3 particular observations about the world is the argument based on?

Explain them …

Answer 5

Complexity - P looks at biological organisms and organs (e.g. the eye) and the laws of nature.
Regularity - P observes the orbit of the commits, moons and planets and the seasons of the year.
Purpose - P observes the machines that we make and watches.

Question 6

How are the 3 observations linked?

Answer 6

Our observation of the complexity and regularity of the world implies that the world has a purpose.

Question 7

Summarise the DA

Answer 7

Some objects in the world show clear evidence that they were designed because they exhibit complexity and regularity so we can infer they were made for a purpose.
The universe appears to exhibit complexity and regularity so we can infer that it was made for a purpose.
So it is likely that the universe was designed.

Question 8

State the analogy used to form the DA

Answer 8

If, while crossing a heath, I come across 2 objects, the first a stone and the second a watch and I ask myself how they came to be there, i would give different answers to this question.
For the stone, it would not be absurd to suppose it had been there forever.
But the watch is quite clearly different because closer inspection shows that it is a complex artefact.

Question 9

What is P’s response to … ?
If the watch is broken or doesn’t work properly that would weaken his argument.
&
What if you couldn’t work out all the parts.

Answer 9

He would still know that the broken watch was designed.

Question 10

What is P’s response to … ?
There just happens to be a principle of order in material things which had somehow brought parts of the watch into their present form and situation.

Answer 10

Watches don’t get made by any ‘principle of order’ other than that found in the mind of a watchmaker.

Question 10

Explain P’s watch analogy

Answer 10

1. A watch has complex parts, each with a function, and the parts work together for a specific purpose.
   2 So the watch must have been designed by a watchmaker.
   3 Similarly the universe has parts that function together for a purpose.
   4 So the universe must have been designed by a universe maker.
   5 The universe is a far more wonderful design than a watch, so its designer
   is much greater than any human designer.
   6 The universe designer is God.

Question 10

Why does Hume argue that the universe could have been designed by a lesser being and not the God of Christian theism?

Answer 10

He argues that there could be a limited designer and possibly more than one.
Intelligent minds are attached to physical bodies so there is no reason to assume that the designer of this universe was a metaphysical being.
Design is a feature of teamwork so there is no reason to suppose that the designer of the universe was a single being operating on his own.

Question 10

Why does Hume argue that the existence of evil and imperfection suggests a limited designer?

Answer 10

The inconsistent triad.
The pain and suffering experienced by humans and animals is not what we would expect from a being of infinite power, wisdom and goodness.
Instead of confronting the problems, theologians spend time inventing theodicies to excuse God’s behaviour.

Question 11

What is Hume’s argument that supports analogies between the way the universe works and the way machines work are unsound?

Answer 11

The world is more like a vast floating vegetable and vegetables grow themselves apparently without the need for a designer.

Question 12

Why does Hume argue that the DA is anthropomorphic?

Answer 12

To know that the universe was designed, we would have to have some knowledge of how universes are made but we don’t so we have no idea what the designer would be like.
Our experience of design is limited to the machines we design ourselves so we are imagining God to be like a human designer.

Question 13

Explain Hume’s argument that the universe could have developed into a comparatively ordered state simply by chance.

Answer 13

Since the world is nothing more or less than changing arrangements of its atoms, given infinite time it was inevitable that atoms should arrive at an order state.

Question 14

Strengths of the DA

Answer 14

1. Even if the universe was designed, the all powerful God of Christian theism is a greater cause than is needed to account for that design.
2. The existence of evil is a powerful argument against the belief the designer is all loving and all powerful.
3. The argument that the universe is more like a vegetable than a machine is backed up by evolution.
4. We have no experience of universe making, so our ideas about it are anthropomorphic - we lift them for our own limited experience.
5. If nature can design itself, the universe could have designed itself in the first place.

Question 15

7 statements to support the status of P’s DA as proof

Answer 15

1. There is sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition that the facts of the matter are strong enough to show that something is true.
2. Proof can be inductive.
3. Inductive arguments can amount to ‘proofs’ when all the evidence points to the truth of the conclusion.
4. P’s DA is inductive,but its evidence does not amount to scientific proof.
5. P’s inductive argument could be the best explanation of the order we see in the universe.
6. For those who believe in God, it couldn’t be a proof as proof could only come through religious experience.
7. It can never have the status of a deductive proof.

Question 16

Explain inductive proof in terms of the DA

Answer 16

Where we use reasoning to show the truth of a conclusion.
From what we observe about order in the universe to the supposed cause - God.
Inductive arguments are about what is probably true and they give us new logic.

Question 17

Why is the evidence not scientific proof?

Answer 17

We have no clear way of assessing the degree of probability of his argument because whatever part of P’s evidence we use, there will always be those who reject it in favour of Hume’s view that the universe probably orders itself.

Question 18

What does reason mean?

Answer 18

The ‘rational’ part of the human mind - using logic, establishing facts, reaching conclusions, making judgements and supporting our judgements with reasons.

Question 19

What does faith mean?

Answer 19

Having trust or belief in something or someone.

Question 20

Why do some argue that belief in God is unreasonable?

Answer 20

Belief in God is about being who by definition cannot be investigated by science.
Truth is what we can know through science and our senses and when people say they believe in God, they are talking about a being who can’t be known in this way.

Question 21

What is fideism?

Answer 21

The idea that faith is the only thing that gives us certainty.
It holds that in matters to do with religion faith is all important and not reason.
Faith is a passionate commitment and people are fully justified in believing something to be true through their own personal experience.
People can believe in God with absolute and passionate conviction and that certainty can never be experienced by using reason.

Question 22

Price’s distinction between ‘belief in’ and ‘belief that’

Answer 22

Belief in God is both ‘interested’ and ‘disinterested’.
Interested - the believer can hope for benefits from that belief.
Disinterested - it is a good thing that God exists, just as it is a good thing that friendship exists.

Belief that God exists is a mere acceptance of a proposition - carries with it none of the sense of value that we find with interested and disinterested belief in God.

Question 23

Explain Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Letter, Fides et Ration

Answer 23

Nothing in the idea of faith excluded the idea that we can have reasoned evidence of what is believed through faith.
The truth is known by a combination of both faith and reason and that the absence of either one diminishes man’s ability to know himself, the world and God.

Question 23

How does the DA support faith by reasoning?

Answer 23

The argument cannot prove God’s existence but it does demonstrate that theologians and philosophers can use reason and observation to talk rationally and meaningfully about God.

Question 24

How can P’s argument be used as part of the religious defence against atheism?

Answer 24

Atheists - religion is unreasonable.
No more evidence that God doesn’t exist than theists have for believing he does.
So it is reasonable to claim that God exists.

Question 25

True or False
For those who are unsure what to believe, the simplicity of Paley’s argument could provide a basis for belief.

Answer 25

True

Question 26

Why do some argue that P’s DA has no value for religious faith?

Answer 26

Faith doesn’t depend on any kind of proof or probability.
It depends on commitment to God and to a religious way of life.

Question 27

Link P’s argument and H.H. Price’s argument

Answer 27

P’s argument provides evidence for belief that God exists but it also comments on the wondrous nature of the design of the universe, suggesting that this supports belief in God.