The Design Argument

Question 1

What is the alternative name for the Design Argument for the existence of God?

Answer 1

The Teleological Argument

Question 2

The word Teleological comes from what Greek word and what does it mean?

Answer 2

Teleos - which means ‘end’ or ‘purpose’

Question 3

The classical argument from design states fours things - what are these things?

Answer 3

1. The unverse has order, regularity and purpose.
2. The complexity of the universe shows evidence of design
3. Such design implies a designer
4. The designer of the universe is God

Question 4

The classical version of the design argument is in two parts - what are these parts?

Answer 4

Design Quo regularity

Design Quo purpose

Question 5

What is Aquinas’ ‘Fifth way’

Answer 5

He stated that everything is directed towards an end and inanimate objects have no rational powers then they must be directed to that purpose by some external power. - He concluded that that power came from God.

Question 6

What did Aquinas use to illustrate his Fifth way?

Answer 6

He said…

…as an arrow is directed by an archer… an intelligent being exists that directs all natural things.

Question 7

Socrates said..

Answer 7

‘With such signs of forethought in the design of living creatures, can you doubt that they are the work of choice or design?’

Question 8

The design argument is an a posteriori argument - Why?

Answer 8

because it is an argument based on external evidence

Question 9

Can you give at least three examples of order and regularity in the world to illustrate Quo Regularity?

Answer 9

Examples…

A formal garden did not come about by chance but through the work of a gardener.

A neat harcut needed to be designed and cut by a hairdresser.

An Ipad could not come about by chance but needed to be designed and created by intellegent life.

The rotation of the planets and natural laws?

Question 10

Aquinas identified that the way in which ‘natural bodies’ act in a regular fashion to accomplish their end must draw us to one conclusion - what did he conclude?

Answer 10

He said it provides the evidence for the existence of an intelligent being; he concluded that this must be God.

Question 11

Aquinas believed that the natural world provided a lot of evidence for God. Aquinas mentions two things present in nature which, taken together, imply design. what are these things?

Answer 11

The first is order (‘things act always, or nearly always, in the same way’).

The second is that the order in nature seems to be beneficial.

Question 12

Aquinas believed that the existence of God was not self evident – No human being could hear, touch, feel, smell or taste God. Our natural senses did not help us discover God. What did he suggest could help us to disciver God?

Answer 12

He did believe that the design of the natural world provided a lot of evidence for God.

Question 13

Design qua purpose developed in the 17th century in response to what?

Answer 13

In response to new mechanistic physics.

Scientific developments had proved that planets orbited the sun according to patterns and natural laws and Newton had discovered the natural laws of motion and gravity.

Many scientists started to see earth as a ‘machine’, with all the parts working together like ‘clockwork’.

Question 14

What is design qua purpose?

Answer 14

This aspect of the design argument looks at design in relation to the ways in which the parts of the universe appear to fit together for some greater purpose.

Question 15

The first part of Paley’s argument was design qua purpose. What did he use to illustrate his point?

Answer 15

Paley used the simple analogy of a watch; arguing that an intelligent person would infer that a pocket watch had to of been designed by a pocket watch maker or designer from looking at the watch.

In the same way, if we look at the world we can infer a design and a designer because of the way in which things fit together for a purpose.

Question 16

Paley thought that a similar conclusion might be drawn from the intricate mechanisms of the human body. Which body part did he use to show this?

Answer 16

Paley used the example of the eye and the way in which is adapted for our sight. Its various parts function in complex ways to produce sight. The eye is designed for the purpose of seeing; it must have had an intelligent designer.

Question 17

What did Paley say about the lacteal system?

Answer 17

The lacteal system is a constant wonder; and it adds to other causes of our admiration, that the number of teats or paps in each species is found to bear a proportion to the number of the young… …the most simple account of this, is to refer it to a designing creator!

Question 18

The second of Paley’s arguments for the existence of God is design qua regularity. What did he use to show this?

Answer 18

• Paley used evidence from astronomy and Newton’s laws of motion and gravity to prove design in the universe.
• Paley pointed to the rotation of the planets in the solar system, and how they obey the same universal laws, and hold their orbits because of gravity.

This could not have come about by chance. He concluded that an external agent must have imposed order on the universe as a whole, and on it many parts, and this agent must have been God.

He noted that even slight differences or irregularities within the system would have resulted in chaos.

Question 19

What contribution did Arthur Brown give to the design argument in the 20th century?

Answer 19

Brown pointed to the ozone layer as evidence of design.

He argued that the ozone layer’s purpose, to filter out ultraviolet rays to protect life, could not have happened by chance.

Question 20

Hume asked why we must conclude that the universe had to have a point of beginning. How does this oppose the design argument?

Answer 20

If the unviverse is eternal and has always existed then there is no need for a designer to start it all off.

Question 21

Humes said… even if it were possible to discern order and purpose in the universe it would still not be evidence that it was the work of God of classical theism. What two things did he use to illustrate this point?

Answer 21

The design could have been the work of several lesser gods, or alternatively, an apprentice god who was moved on to create bigger and better worlds.

The evidence of flaws in the design such as suffering and death would be more supportive of a designer that was not an infinite perfect Being.

Question 22

Hume offered three challenges to the argument for design: what was his first argument?

Answer 22

Humans do not have sufficient knowledge and experience of the creation of the world to conclude that there is only one designer. Humans have only the experience of the things they design and create. Humans can only recognise human-designed objects, for example a ship. This limited experience is not sufficient to come to similar conclusions about the creation and design of the world.

Question 23

Hume offered three challenges to the argument for design: what was his second argument?

Answer 23

Hume does not think that it is a good analogy to liken the universe to a vast machine. The universe is more like a vegetable or inert animal; something that grows of its accord, rather than something made by hand.

Question 24

Hume offered three challenges to the argument for design: what was his third argument?

Answer 24

Hume argues that to try to discuss the design of the universe in human terms was not an acceptable analogy because God transcends human understanding.

Question 25

Hume offers challenges to the argument from design: what is the first?

Answer 25

Even if the world is designed it still cannot prove that the designer is God. The conclusion could easily be reached that the universe’s configuration is the result of some morally ambiguous, possibly unintelligent agent or agents whose method bears only a remote similarity to human design.

Question 26

What is the Epicurean hypothesis?

Answer 26

Hume’s Epicurean hypothesis argued that at the time of creation, the universe consisted of particles in random motion.

This initial state was chaotic but gradually the natural forces evolved into an ordered system. The universe is eternal, and in this unlimited time it was inevitable that a constantly ordered state would develop.

Question 27

How did John Stuart Mill seek to argue against the design argument?

Answer 27

Mill believed that because there is evil and suffering in the world then the designer cannot have been all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving.

If the designer were all-loving then the suffering of humanity would not have been included in the design.

As it is then, at least one of these three attributes must be missing. It goes against the Christian view of God.

Question 28

How did C.S Lewis respond to John Stuart Mill and his argument about evil and sufferring?

Answer 28

Lewis said… But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse our deaf world.

Question 29

Who said the design argument was “…the oldest, the clearest, and that most in conformity with the common reason of humanity”

Answer 29

Immanuel Kant

Question 30

How did Immanuel Kant argue against the design argument?

Answer 30

Kant believed that we cannot see structure, order or reason in our world.

Kant thought that our minds made sense of chaos and simply believed it to be ordered, when in fact, it was not.

Question 31

Who first asked the difficult theological question…Who designed the designer? (or who made God?)

Answer 31

Immanuel Kant

Question 32

What is Darwinism’s main challenge to design?

Answer 32

Darwin’s evolutionary theory argues that there is a mechanistic self-ordering process in nature.

Darwin’s ideas also proposed that old species die off and become extinct, with new species developing over time.

Darwin provided an alternative explanation for the design of the world without reference to creation by God.

Question 33

Who argues that natural selection gave the appearance of design, and that this led to the mistaken belief that there must have been a designer.

Question 34

On what grounds does Dawkins reject any design in the world?

Answer 34

He argues that the variations in the world were caused by random mistakes in the DNA molecules in different life forms.

Question 35

Richard Dawkins invented the term ‘Memes’. Meme comes from the Greek work (mimetismos) meaning ‘something imitated’ - what does he means by this?

Answer 35

Memes take a Darwinian view of culture.

Memes refer to the unit of cultural inheritance; memes are essentially ideas, that are operated on by natural selection. Good ideas are passed on to future generations and bad ideas rejected. This helps our species survive.

Question 36

What does Dawkins discuss in his book ‘The Selfish Gene’ which argues against design by God?

Answer 36

Dawkins argues that genes - molecules of DNA - are the fundamental units of natural selection, the ‘replicators’.

Organisms, including human organisms, are no more than the ‘vehicles’ or packaging for these ‘replicators’.

The success or failures of replicators is based on their ability to build successful vehicles.

Question 37

What is the Anthropic Principle?

Answer 37

The anthropic principle is a recent development of the teleological (design) argument and it claims that the cosmos is constructed for the development of intelligent life.

It says that God has designed the universe in such a way that it is perfect for life to develop.

Question 38

What does John Polkinghorne use to support the design argument for the existence of God?

Answer 38

John Polkinghorne uses the anthropic principle to support his belief that chance alone is an unlikely theory to explain why the exact conditions occurred in the universe to develop intelligent life.

Question 39

Who claims that the creator of our universe has stood back and given creation the freedom to be itself. Therefore, it is not as obvious now to see God’s presence and activity in our world.

Answer 39

John Polkinghorne

For Polkinghorne, in order for life to begin there had to be a life source or a life giver. This, he concludes, must have been God.

Question 40

F.R. Tennant (1866-1957) developed the anthropic principle by saying that there were three types of natural evidence in the world in favour of a divine designer. What are these things?

Answer 40

1. The fact that the world can be analyzed in a rational manner.
2. The way in which the inorganic world has provided the basic necessities required for sustaining life.
3. The progress of evolution towards the mergence of intelligent human life.

Question 41

Who concluded that human life is either the conclusion of God’s big plan for mankind or at the very least – the current stage in God’s plan.

Answer 41

F.R. Tennant

Question 42

Tennant said that rather than looking at small parts of the creation it was good to consider ‘the wider teleology’. Why did he see this as so important?

Answer 42

Tennant looked at Conspiration = the way many things have come together or combined to make the world what it is. This, he said, was evidence of design.

He also looked at Conspection = a survey or observation of events. He was impressed by the way what can be observed scientifically points clearly to design.

Question 43

What is the aesthetic argument according to Tennant?

Answer 43

Tennant argued that humans possess the ability to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings, to enjoy art, music and literature.

Yet such an appreciation is not necessary for survival or the development of life, and is therefore evidence of a divine creator.

It cannot, therefore, be the result of natural selection alone.

Question 44

Swinburne agrees with evolution but does not believe that evolution rules out the possibility of God as designer, how does he see this?

Answer 44

• He states that the fact the world now has regularity and order and purpose is not chance – it may have come about by seemingly chaotic chance but the fact that it came about means it could not have happened by chance. ie. God make sure it came about. The universe is providential.

Swinburne calls this Reformulation of the design argument from temporal order

Question 45

What is Swinburne’s argument from spatial order?

Answer 45

For life to develop there had to be a planet just like ours with just the right kind of atmosphere, the right amount of oxygen, water, and so on for the universe to develop the way it did.

The initial conditions for the ‘big bang’ had to be just right

Swinburne says God made sure it was all right – everything was designed to develop the way it did.

Question 46

Swinburne uses the principle of ‘Occam’s Razor’ to show design in the world - how does this work?

Answer 46

Occam’s Razor states…

The simplest explanation is most probably the correct explanation. Only if it is proven not to be should a more complex explanation be considered.

God made the world is the simplest explanation and therefore the most probable.

The design and order of the world backs up this explanation – giving it more weight.

Question 47

What are the two main strength of the design argument?

Answer 47

1. Its very scientific – science and religion working together as opposed to both in conflict, and this means it is based on real evidence which can be looked at and tested.
2. The order and ‘fine tuning’ of our world strongly suggests it was not created purely by accident – and Polkinghorne’s anthropic principle explains this well.