The Design Argument Flashcards
what does an acorn to an oak tree symbolise?
purpose
how did aquinas develop his design argument?
from aristotle, cicero & islamic philosophy
what does arrow to archer symbolise?
purpose and direction
qua purpose
all things have a telos
what did hume reject in his critique?
a priori reasoning
who were the 4 characters hume used?
Pamphilus
Cleanthes
Philo
Deniea
who were the two key characters out of the four presented by hume?
Philo and Cleanthes
what role did cleanthes play?
beliefs from the teleological argument
what role did philo play?
hume himself (own position)
what does philo (hume) say?
- producer (god) must be inefficient
- many gods - anthropomorphic - uneducated gods
- design implies designer
- order is not the same as design
what assumptions do people make? DESIGN ARGUMENT
that things would always end up how they do/have
what was paley’s analogy?
qua order
who was paley aware of when he wrote the blind watchmaker?
hume
who was paley highly influenced by?
charles darwin and utilitarianism
what kind of argument is paley’s?
inductive - observed premises
what is the most likely explination/most persuaive? DESIGN ARGUMENTS
god
what isn’t paley seeking to do?
not to prove god’s existence but that god offers the best explination
what did dawkins say?
god is irrelevant - natural selection is key
what is dawkins arguing?
brute fact (simpler and more ellegant)
what is the most plausible explanation of design? SWINBURNE
- infinite number of universes
- we are here. it just happened.
- intelligence behind the universe
what kind of argument is the teleological argument?
a posteriori, inductive, synthetic
what are teleological arguments?
arguments for the existence of god by observing the design in the universe
what are the two types of design argument?
design qua regularity - aquinas
design qua purpose -paley
when was paley’s argument put forward?
in the early 19th century
what does paley’s argument suggest?
that everything is designed to fulfil a purpose (uses the analogy of the watch)
what are the 4 steps of paley’s watch analogy?
1) imagine finding a watch on a heath, it is very complex
2) therefore it must have been designed
3) design implies designer
4) therefore the watch must have been designed by a designer
what can paley’s watch analogy be applied to?
the universe
what are there clear signs of in the universe?
design and purpose
what does design imply?
a designer
is design implies designer, what must there be?
a designer, who is thought to be god
what does paley argue about god’s existence?
god necessarily exists due to the need for a designer
what does aquinas’s argument suggest?
that the designer starts off a chain of design one thing after another
what does paley’s argument suggest?
everything fitting together or a purpose like machine (product of enlightenment thinking)
what did FR Tennant put forward an argument for?
suggests that the needs of humanity have been provided for, therefore suggesting the existence of a designer
what did richard swinburne suggest?
that the probability of humanity coming into existence is so huge that it is probable that there is an intelligent designer behind the universe
where did david hume criticise the argument?
in his ‘dialogues on religion’
what did hume use to criticise the argument?
4 characters
what character was used in hume’s 1st and 2nd reply?
philo
when were hume’s replies written in relation to paley’s argument?
23 years prior to paley’s argument - paley was aware of hume’s criticisms before hand
what did hume say that our knowledge of god’s designing makes god? hume’s first reply
1)like effects presupppose like causes therefore if we are designed by god does that make him just a superhuman figure
what did hume say regarding evidence of good design? hume’s first reply
although there is evidence of good design in the universe, there is also evidence of bad design
where does the idea of multiple god’s come from? hume’s first reply
strong links between design IN the universe and design OF the universe
humans collaborate to make something, maybe many god’s did too
what happens if you say that there are only weak links between design IN the universe and design OF the universe? hume’s first reply
whole argument is weakened?
what was hume’s second reply?
1) it is perfectly possible for order to come out of chaos
2) an infinite number of combinations of universes are possible
what does hume say we should do following his first and second replies?
SUSPEND JUDGEMENT on whether there is a God
what is JS Mills statement on nature? CRITICISM
nature commits terrible crimes that humans would be punished for
what does JS Mill say on suffering and the design of the universe?
there is so much suffering in the world that it could not be the design of an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent god
what does JS Mill reject?
the god of classical theism and the design argument of paley and aquinas
what did charles darwin say about the design argument?
read paley’s argument and thought it was really good, but felt that his theory of evolution proved the argument wrong
why does richard dawkins reject the argument?
he says that faith is anti-intellectual
why does dawkins say there is not design of the universe?
because it is just natural selection and we are just slaves to our genes
