Teleological argument
- Created by: Milly
- Created on: 05-04-13 08:39
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- Teleological argument
- Dawkins
- There is no designer - natural selection and evolution
- Because the world has changed over time, the current world could not have been designed and the world cannot be poerfect
- Even if it looks complex, it is not necessarily designed
- Keith Ward
- World is part of such a delicate balance with conditions so improbable that it must have been designed
- Darwin explains how organisms have developed but not why the laws of nature are true
- Darwin relies on the predictaability of nature, however there are many possibilities that the current nature could change - must rely on God who determines nature
- Darwin's theory does not disprove the design argument - the set of parameters must be perfect for evolution to exist
- William Paley
- watch analogy
- Both the world and the watch are not always perfect - does not disprove its designer
- Only the watchmaker can understand the principles behind how it is made
- The maker existed at some time or some place
- Not necessary to understand how it was made, but instead to understand it was designed
- It is implausible to believe that something so complex is due to chance
- Rejects that it is our minds which makes us interpret the world in this way
- Types of design
- Design qua regularity: the ordered movements of planets
- Design qua purpose: the delicate structure of the eye to achieve sight
- Strengths
- Analogy makes it clear and easy to understand
- Weaknesses
- Does not address why we need to understand how it was made
- Cannot address directly to modern counter arguments like evolution
- watch analogy
- F.R. Tennant
- Aesthetic argument
- Anthropic principle
- Strong principle
- Life conditions are intrinsically present in the universe - life was inevitable
- This is the principle Tenant adopts
- Weak principle
- Conditions for life happen to have occured
- There is order and movement to the universe which must have a driving force, i.e. God
- Implies a God may have existed initially but does not necessarily exist now
- Life exists because of particular features of the universe which could not have come about randomly
- Strong principle
- Both science and God's existence can be true - the Big Bang could be caused by God
- Humans are not just results of evolution, our purpose is not just survival and reproduction we are something more.
- Weaknesses
- Flawed logic
- Having a goal doesn't mean that God has created the goal
- Flawed logic
- Aquinas
- Arrow analogy
- If you see an arrow flying through the air. you conclude that it has been shot by someone and for a purpose
- Design qua purpose: the delicate structure of the eye to achieve sight
- If you see an arrow flying through the air. you conclude that it has been shot by someone and for a purpose
- Strengths
- Reasoned argument compared to an unsupported faith
- Inductive reasoning - from the particular to the general
- Uses real world examples
- Simple and easily comprehended
- Applicable to everyone
- Answers main teleological questions
- Reasoned argument compared to an unsupported faith
- Fifth of Aquinas' Ways
- Innate objects, like planets, are perfectly ordered but do not have the intellect to do so themselves. Therefore something else must have designed their perfection.
- Weaknesses
- Premise of arrow analogy relies on the universe being goal orientated
- Arrow analogy
- Richard Swinburne
- Order is aesthetic
- We find find the world beautiful because it was made for us
- The universe is beautiful due to its order which comes from its designer
- Probability Argument
- The amount of factors that are perfect imply that there must be a desihgner
- In nature and evolution so much could have gone wrong, yet it hasn't
- Providential
- The universe is made for us
- It is not a vacuum
- The universe seems like such an ideal place for us to live that it must have been designed
- Weaknesses
- Relies on our belief that the universe is perfect
- Weakness
- Assumes evolution cannot take place without God
- Order is aesthetic
- Mill
- Nature is cruel
- How could any benevolent designer design such a thing in which ****, murder, natural disasters etc, occur?
- Does not explain the designer of God or why God does not have a designer.
- Dawkins
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