The Teleological Argument (against)
- Created by: Grace Lidgett
- Created on: 28-12-12 13:36
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- Teleological criticisms
- Hume
- Although Hume wrote several years before Paley, his criticisms can still apply
- WEAK ANALOGY = his strongest argument - comparing God the creator to anything on earth is not valid
- SIMILAR EFFECTS = similar effects do not imply similar causes and we cannot assume there is a designers because we would have to have experienced to origin of the universe
- Things appear to work together but it could all be chance
- The world does not resemble something man-made
- Darwin
- His book 'origin of the species' goes against this and questioned beliefs about God through reason
- THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION = plants and animals change and adapt to their environment, and those who failed did not survive
- Change had come about gradually through chance and it is simply survival of the fittest
- Scientific evidence to back up Hume
- Mill
- If the world is designed by a loving God, then why is nature so cruel?
- Problem of evil =an all-good God cannot be responsible for the evident evil
- If process comes through pain and suffering, what does it say about the nature of the designer?
- General criticisms
- Flew argued that Aquinas' claim that things are directed goes against evidence we see today
- Some argue that the world is just the way it is and doesnt need purpose
- Aquinas assumes things have a purpose and goal but never gives evidence to back up
- Humans don't have proper knowledge to assume
- Paley's analogy would suggest that it is possible to believe more than one god created the world as there is more than one watchmaker
- Hume
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