The Teleological Argument

Question 1

What is the teleological argument for God’s existence?

Answer 1

One that finds evidence that then world has been designed and given purpose by God
— arguments from design
— see the universe as evidence for the existence of God
- the question teleological theologians would ask - ‘why does it possess the particular qualities that it does and how best can we explain them?

Question 2

What would Dawkins and Aquinas say about the teleological argument?

Answer 2

1- the regularity and order of the world
2- the way that everything in the world seems to be designed for some purpose
3- the way that living things are so suited to their environment
4- the fact that life development in the world at all
5- the fact that conscious beings exist

• Dawkins would argue that is all just chance
• Aquinas - it is highly improbable that all those things happen by chance (the purpose behind thinking through a teleological argument is that the earth could not have happened by chance)

Question 3

What is an inductive argument?

Answer 3

• begins with a claim or argument we can know through experience
• then with something we can’t know through experience

Question 4

What is an abductive argument?

Answer 4

• they begin with some evidence that needs explaining and conclude with the best explanation for this evidence

Question 5

What are Aquinas’ fifth way to know God?

Answer 5

1- things that lack intelligence, such as living organisms, have and end (a purpose)
2- things that lack intelligence cannot move towards their end unless they are directed by someone with knowledge and intelligence
3- for example, an arrow does not direct itself toward its target, but needs an archer to direct it
4- therefore, there must be some intelligent being which directs all unintelligent natural things towards their end. This being we call God

Question 6

What are the criticisms of Aquinas 5th way to know God?

Answer 6

• no free will (too deterministic)
• more dissimilar than similar
• the concept of intelligence is subjective
• not omnipotent because he needs an arrow
• it’s an empirical argument (you can’t observe God)
• different types of intelligence (subjective)
• assumes that there is an intelligent being who created the universe (doesn’t prove it just says it exists)
• it is not a posterior more a priori (reason) rather than evidence
• we have anthropomorphised God and nature
• our observations do not support the claim of some intelligent being shaping things (many things grow and develop without and interference from an intelligent being - Flew

Question 7

How does the teleological argument work?

Answer 7

• this argument me makes use of the belief that Aquinas held that everything in the universe has a purpose
• Aquinas argues that there must be an intelligent being behind the function of organisms
• he uses the archer as an analogy for the whole universe
• his conclusion is that the universe, which is unintelligent yet goal directed like an arrow, must have a guiding intelligence behind it, just as the archer aims and fires the bow

Question 8

How does William Paley adapt the teleological argument?

Answer 8

• he uses the of the watch to consider the features of an object that had been designed
• having examined the watch, he then turned his attention to the natural world and found that many of the indicators of design that we observed in the watch can also be observed in nature
• the qualities of purpose, complexity and deign can be seen in the natural world that appear to be made by humans but aren’t

Question 9

What is Paley’s argument from analogy?

Answer 9

1- a watch is complex (it has many parts)
2- anything complex with many parts must have been designed
3- the watch has a designer
4- the universe is like a watch (they posses the same features)
5- therefore the universe has a designer - God

Question 10

What are the criticisms of Paleys analogy?

Answer 10

• no evidence that there is a God, only a designer
• the universe is constantly expanding a watch isn’t
• too simple
• more dissimilar than similar
• the watchmaker is human (not transcendent) God is transcendent
• the watch may sometimes go wrong
• we may be ignorant about how watched are made
• the watch may have come together by chance
• some parts of the watch seem to have no purpose

Question 11

What are Hume’s criticisms of Paley’s work?

Answer 11

1- we have no experience of world making - to know what has brought something about, we have to have experience of it being brought about
2- arguments from analogy are weak - the universe isn’t a machine
3- the assumption of cause and effect - the assumption that there must be a designer simply because something is complex