Design argument

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  • Design argument
    • William Paley
      • Paley believed Biological things had an indication of a designer (God)
        • Paley made a test which can distinguish things designed with purpose and things without purpose (things which just happen to be)
          • As an example, Paley put forth a story:
            • Imagine going for a walk one day, only to stumble upon two things - a watch and a rock.
              • If you were to ask yourself do these two thing appear here by chance, or by design?
                • You could say, the rock, because of its simple nature, could be here by chance.
                  • However, the watches complicated mechanisms, like its several parts framed and put together and its ability to tell time has to be here for a purpose.
                    • So if something has purspose, and it has parts which work together for that purpose, then it passes 'the test for design'.
      • What if we were to apply his test to biology?
        • How about the eye, which has several parts to it, all of which work together for a purpose (to see)
          • Paley argues Biology must be designed by God
    • David Hume
      • Hume thinks the design argument fails to make the link to God
        • You cant argue because one thing has been desgined with purpose, that everything else is
          • Fallacy of composition
            • Just becuase we know why thing on earth have purpose, it does not apply ti a grander scale of things, as our knowledge of the universe is very limited
      • He further argues, relating our understanding of the purpose to God is Anthroporphism (seeing a non-human as human)
        • Our experience of design is limited to the machines we design ourselves, so in effect we are imagining God to be like a human designer
          • If God is omnipotent and omniscient, then Paleys bioligcal design is faulty, becuase the eye can be blind or require glasses
    • Charls Darwin
      • People nowaday favour Darwin's theory of Evolution

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