The Teleological argument:

Question 1

Teleological:

Answer 1

Any argument which is cast in terms of the end (telos)

Question 2

What type of argument is this?

Answer 2

An a posteriori argument.

Question 3

What does the existence of God based on observation argue?

Answer 3

The a posteriori argument of the existence of God questions whether or not God exists.

Question 4

The First Vatican Council (1869-70):

Answer 4

Decreed (ordered) that it was possible to know the existsence of God by reason alone.

Question 5

Developed by:

Answer 5

William Paley 1743-1805

Question 6

Aquinas Fifth way:

Answer 6

Argues that things which lack knowledge, such as natural objects, act for a purpose. Objects are given a purpose.

Question 7

Aquinas link with Aristotle:

Answer 7

Aquinas fifth way is an elaboration of Aristotle’s four cases, the final cause, which is Aristotle’s idea of the ultimate purpose of a thing. Aquinas fifth way focuses on the notion of purpose.

Question 8

Purpose:

Answer 8

Refers to a state of mind. Humans have a purpose, but objects don’t. Aquinas gives an example of an arrow. An arrow doesn’t have a purpose within itself, but its archer creates a purpose for it.

Question 9

Aristotle belief of purpose:

Answer 9

Aristotle assumes in his physics and biology that everything in the universe has a purpose, and this is clearly reflected in his teleological argument.

Question 10

Modern Biology view on purpose:

Answer 10

Would say that God doesn’t have a purpose to exist. Disagree with Aquinas.

Question 11

AO2 on Purpose:

Answer 11

God has given humans a purpose to exist, God has given humans freewill, knowledge and the duty to procreate for the future Christian or Islamic nation. Science have used the posteriori evidence of God’s existence and justified it by giving a non-religious answer. For example, the big bang, was an event which proves the existence of God, according to many Abrahamic believers. Yet, science has used physics as its greatest defence to explain how the world was created. Leaving the unanswered question of who triggered the first move of this big bang. Because, surely atoms would have needed some kind of force to have moved it and the only believable answer, in the context sciences big bang theory, would be that God started the big bang and that God exists.

Question 12

Design Argument:

Answer 12

Any argument which attempts to demonstrate that patterns in nature are understandable only when it is referenced to a ‘cosmic designer’. Paley’s argument is the most famous one along with his watch analogy.

Question 13

Who was Paley deeply influenced by?

Answer 13

Isaac Newton (1642 -1727)

Question 14

William Paley’s watch analogy:

Answer 14

1. Analogy remains valid if we’ve never seen a watch before. A watch is a different origin to a rock, a rock is a natural object.
2. Even if the watch didn’t work perfectly, just as the world seems to function imperfectly, there is still enough evidence to prove that there’s a watch maker.
3. We would know there’s a watch maker despite its imperfection or broken watch.

Question 15

Simpler explanation of the watch analogy:

Answer 15

Paley compares the world to the watch, and states that ‘such design could not have come about by chance, something must have made it fit together. There must be a watchmaker’, which contrasts nature, whose causes are easily accounted for an offspring. E.G. a rock caused by wind, erosion.

Question 16

What does Paley highlight?

Answer 16

Paley draws on Enlightenment era of science, which was deeply influence by Isaac Newton. Paley had highlighted the complexity of the human brain, where millions of cells coordinate, and the wing of a bird, which is perfectly and precisely engineered to allow movement through the air, and flight.

Question 17

The purpose of the watch analogy:

Answer 17

The purpose of the watch analogy is to show that there is clear evidence that there must be a watchmaker, and those who are in deniable of there being one are fools. The same with the existence of God, there is clear evidence that God exists and created this world, however there are some who disbelieve this, which concludes onto them being fools.

Question 18

David Hume’s Criticism:

Answer 18

Hume’s identified 3 clear issues:

1. Aptness of analogy.
2. The Epicurean Thesis.
3. Argument from effect to cause.

Question 19

1. Aptness of analogy:

Answer 19

A watch is a machine and machines have machine makers. If we consider a perfect cabbage, realistically, we couldn’t and wouldn’t correlate this back to the cabbage maker.

Question 20

AO2 on Aptness of analogy:

Answer 20

Paley had already stated the different origin of the watch by comparing it to a rock which is a natural object. This watch analogy is used as a metaphor providing the realisation that if we can acknowledge that there’s a watch maker, then surely we can acknowledge that there is an omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient being known as God who created us humans. Paley had never considered the idea of finding the watch maker, he made it clear that there’s an awareness of a watch maker being the creator of the watch.

Question 21

2. The Epicurean Thesis:

Answer 21

Questions whether such a stable order could arise at random. If something could display order without being made to do so by a ground designer, we would have an alternative way of explaining the phenomenon. In other words we can think of every way a thing could have existed and who created it.

Question 22

AO2:The Epicurean Thesis:

Answer 22

Although it is true that we can think of every other possible being that could have made such a thing to exist. Then it would be a matter of condensing the list and considering which one has provided enough evidence to prove its existence. For example, with dinosaurs or aliens existing, no human has ever seen a dinosaur or alien to know how they look or whether they have existed. However, evidence provided from fossils has proven that dinosaur had existed. No clear evidence has been provided to officially prove that aliens have existed or currently exist.

Question 23

3. Argument from effect to cause:

Answer 23

Hume’s gives an example of scales. We can see one side, which is in the air, so we know the other side is heavier without seeing it.

Question 24

AO2: Argument from effect to cause:

Answer 24

The argument from effect to cause considers on what makes logical sense, for example, in the human body, the white blood cells, blood cells, egg cells and sperm cells all know of their role, it makes sense to consider the idea that these cells were ordered and structured to perform certain roles to ensure that the body functions correctly, in terms of this argument, it makes logical sense state that these cells have been monitored by the creator of the human body. Which is God.

Question 25

Interesting fact about Hume’s criticism:

Answer 25

It was written more than 20 years before the watch analogy had been made.

Question 26

Objections made from John Stuart Mill:

Answer 26

• Highlights the amount of evil in the world, as a fundamental issue with the design argument.
• From a flawed universe, the most we can infer is a flawed creator, not an all-knowing or all-loving one.
• There is evil beyond people’s choices, real evil like natural disasters, illness and plagues, which are the permanent part of the worlds structure.
• The design argument was morally flawed.

Question 27

Anthony Kenny:

Answer 27

Stated that Paley’s type of argument ‘leads to a God which is no more the source of the good than the source of evil. The God which this argument of rational theology leads to is not supreme goodness’. It’s about a being which is beyond good and evil.

Question 28

Charles Darwin:

Answer 28

Never used the evolution theory against the existence of God.

Question 29

The Evolution Theory:

Answer 29

• Species randomly develop, and are produced into their given habitat, if habitat isn’t right for them, they die.
• Darwin termed this process as ‘natural selection’. He observed that there are more creatures born in any species than can survive, so struggle for survival ensures both within and between species, as well as over finite reassures need for survival.
• Dinosaurs couldn’t survive in their given habitat hence why they’re extinct.
• Adapted in environment for survival.

Question 30

T.H Huxley (1825-1895):

Answer 30

Described the evolution theory as the survival of the fittest.

Question 31

Modern Version of the Design Argument: F.R Tennant:

Answer 31

Developed the anthropic principle, argues that the world is perfect the precise environment for man to evolve that it surely has been planned.
Tennant’s view assumes that this entire universe exists for the sake of this little earth.

Question 32

Anthropic principle:

Answer 32

The view that the universe exists for the sake of humankind and is particularly adapted to that purpose.

Question 33

Modern Version: Richard Swinburne:

Answer 33

Interested in the simplicity of the universe. Swinburne argues that the most simplest and economical argument would be that God planned it.

Question 34

William of Oakham:

Answer 34

Believed that when we have two or more competing theories, the one with the fewer or fewest hypothesis is more likely to be true.

Question 35

The Ockham Razor theory:

Answer 35

Refers to the idea that theories should not be multiplied beyond necessity. If we have to choose between tow or more theories, the one with the smallest number of assumptions is the one most likely to be correct.