Design Arguments

Overall order in the world = proof of a designer

Everything in the world works together to achieve order despite that inanimate objects have no mind or rational powers to achieve that themselves.

THE ARROW AND THE ARCHER

For an arrow to reach its destination it must be directed by the hand of an archer as it lacks the knowledge to do it itself.

SIMILARLY: "natural bodies" (e.g humans) act in a regular fashion to achieve their purpose (e.g living) but are not able to direct themselves.

Therefore it must be the hand of God directing them!!!

AGUMENT FROM ANALOGY

Imagine a man who comes across a stone and a pocket watch.

STONE: could have been there forever, not there for a reason. POCKET WATCH: complicated and intricate, purposefull piece of machinery.

Therefore, all the evidence assumes that the watch had been DESIGNED for a purpose and DESIGNED with necessary regularity to meet its purpose.

NATURE! Similarly intricacies that exist within nature could not have come about purely by chance.

e.g the EYE, made for vision!

FREDERICK R TENNANT - best evidence of design is seen in the way the universe supports intelligent life.

AESTHETIC PRINCIPLE - nothing seen in the theory of evolution can explain humans feel love and appreciation of art/music/literature/beautifull things. These do not aid us in survival therefore cannot be explained by natural selection. Furthermore our "capacity for joy" had to be put in by a designer. God!!!

RICHARD SWINBURNE - complexity of the universe! Earth is too finely tuned to work in our favour for it not to have been designed by some being.

PERSONAL EXPLANATION: understand the existence of scientific laws

OCCAMS RAZOR: "all things being equal, the simplest answer is probably the best". existence of a designer-creator being is the simplest to the temporal order.

CONCLUSION: best explanation is the existence of God.

CLEANTHES - every aspect of the natural world bears the marks of design (e.g suitability and skill). The magnitude and grandeur of the "designers" work means he must have had intelligence in proportion to this. House analogy.

PHILOS CRITICISMS - The analogy of building a house cannot be used as we do not know enough about the universe to compare it to anything! If God is a human designer isn't he less than a perfect being? Team of Gods?

PHILOS EXPLANATIONS - "design in the animal kingdom exists due to survival" (animals that are not adapted simply die). Universe spun by a gigantic spider?? Design and order do not necessarily need supreme intelligence, created with power!!!

HUME SPEAKING OUT - existence of evil undermines God. Design argument doesn't = theism. Lesser Gods? Failed experiment? Epicurean Hypothesis (universe once chaotic)

KANT & MILL - does order really exist?? World could be in chaos! Cruel deisgner or no designer at all = problem of evil.

Natural selection creates an "illusion" of design which people have inrepretated as real design.

GENES = INTELLIGENT LIFE

"memes" = ideas/cultural inheritance operated on by natural selction: inherit some cultural values of our ancestors.

Humans APPEAR to have appreciation of beauty but is actually a mechanism for survival.