The Teleological argument Flashcards
What did Isaac Newton say?
“In the absence of any proof the thumb alone would convince me of Gods existence”
= each person having a unique thumbprint points more to a designer than random chance
What was William Paley’s design qua regularity?
What were the criticisms of this?
3 points
- nothings ever random
1) Look at design and regularity in the universe
2) This order and regularity is evidence of a designer as it could not have occurred by random chance
Criticisms:
-Evolution and natural selection - Survival of the fittest
- Organisms that adapt can pass on genes more effectively then the ones who cant
What was William Paley’s design qua purpose?
What was the analogy?
- universe was designed to fulfill a purpose
Analogy
1)If someone found a rock on the ground you would assume it was placed there by natural causes
2) If someone found a watch because of the complexity you would assume it had a designer
3) Universe is like the watch= too complex to of happened by chance
What was Hume’s criticisms of Paley?
1) Unsound analogy - world and watch are very unlike each other
- “More ways in which nature and machines are different then similar”
- “Universe is organic so why not compare it to a cabbage”
2) God more human then divine
- watch is man made so anthropomorphizes God
What was Aquinas syllogism?
What was Hume’s criticisms of this?
1) There is evidence of design in the world
2) Design presupposes a designer
3) This designer is God
Criticisms:
- implies superhuman anthropomorphic God
- world is imperfect = bad design or an immoral God
What was Aquinas’ 5th way?
1) The natural world obeys natural laws
2) Natural things flourish as they obey these laws
3) Things without intelligence can’t direct themselves
4) Therefore things with intelligence require something with intelligence to direct them towards there goals
5) This is God
How did Aquinas come about to his conclusions?
What was the analogy he used?
- used observation that non - intelligent organic life works in ordered purposeful ways
- Only intelligent beings can move non- intelligent beings towards there purpose
Analogy: - Archer giving the arrow its purposeful direction in the quiver
What was the Probability argument?
- evidence of design increases the probability of there being a God
= universe is providential has everything humans and animals need to survive; humans can contribute and maintain nature
= Higher probability that God exists then doesn’t
Criticisms of the Probability argument?
1) Theist = just follows the biblical version of creation ]
2) Any being could claim the universe was made for them i.e bacteria
3) accept high probability of god = except aliens/ another divine being
What was the aesthetic argument?
FR Tennant
- natural beauty so gratuitous in some places its needed for basic human survival
- Beauty represents the glory of God
= world is so beautiful it had to of been designed
Criticisms of the aesthetic argument?
4 points
- Evil and suffering = John Stuart Mill “ either there is no God or exists an immoral and incompetent God”
- humans in an age of destruction with nature = no harmony
- Beauty subjective to perception
- God isn’t bound to human conceptions of beauty
What was Swinburne’s regularities of co- presence
= refers to tendency of things turning up in orderly patterns i.e the complexity of an ecosystem or an eye
( woodpecker wrapping its tongue around its brain)
- proof of Gods existence
What were the criticisms of regularities of co-presence
“Infinite monkey theorem”
= spatial order can come about by any chance
What were Swinburne’s regularities of succession
- orderly processes that operate the same way every time i.e the laws of nature
- even if evolution can explain the human eye, evolution itself is one of the regularities that make the universe so ordered
“the universe might so naturally have been chaotic, but it is not, it is random chance”
What were the criticisms of the regularities of succession?
1) Random chance
2) Fallacy of composition = just because things in the universe seem designed doesn’t mean the universe itself is designed
