Inductive arguments - teleological

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  • Created by: anoelle
  • Created on: 23-01-18 18:21

Aquinas - Fifth Way

  • Aquinas teleological argument can be found in the fifth of his 'Five Ways' in the Summa Theologica
  • Lacks intelligence - cannot move towards fulfilling a useful end, unless something with intelligence has moved it
  • Pen - non-intelligent
  • Only way to write is if you pick up the pen
  • Aquinas used - arrow and the archer
  • Arrow, by itself, cannot reach target - needs to be fired by the archer in order for this to happen
  • Relates this to the workings of the universe stating everything in universe follows natural laws, even if they possess no intelligence
  • i.e. the regular movement of the stars in the sky - for which in Aquinas' time peoople had no rational 'scientific' explanation
  • Fact that these tend to follow these laws and fulfil some purpose or end goal (their 'telos') yet don't have ability to think...
  • Suggests that they have been 'directed' by something else (as with arrow)
  • For Aquinas, only possible explanation was that this guiding intelligence was God
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Paley's watchmaker - analogy of complex design

Paley's watchmaker - analogy of complex design

  • William Paley - proposed design argument in its popular modern form
  • Proposed his version in his Natural Theology which was published at the beginning of the 19th century
  • His basic argument follows that, were we to discovered a stone whilst out walking, we may enquire how it came to be and, through a consideration of natural events, might come to a conclusion of how it was formed
  • However, discover a watch - we should not come to the same conclusions
  • Paley was interested in pointing out why this was the case
  • V complicated system of cogs, springs, gears
  • Complexity of these mechanisms would point towards the design by a being of intelligence and was not the result of random chance
  • Paley states that we could draw this conclusion even if we were unaware of the purpose of the watch
  • Summary, the watch, with all its complexities, needs an intelligent watchmaker to explain how it came into being
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Paley's watchmaker - analogy of complex design

  • Paley then widens his argument -
  • Everything in the universe (and using the natural world as evidence) is likewise complex - therefore too infers a designer
  • Workings of the eye - from the way it perceives objects, to the functin of the 'secretions' that keep the eyeball moving as well as the eyelids that protect the eye
  • Suggets the incredible complexity is evidence for a designing intelligence
  • Again, as the watch needed the intelligent watchmaker, so too does the universe need an intelligent universe-'maker'.
  • The universe's designer is analogous to the watchmaker - whole point of Paley's argument, remember!
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Tennant's anthropic and aesthetic arguments

  • Whilst not using the specific term 'anthropic principle' in his 1928 work Philosophical Theology, Tennant developed a set of evidences that are widely recognised as anthropic principles today
  • Evidence included beliefs such as:
  • The very fact that the natural world provides precisely the things that are necessary for life to be sustained
  • The fact that the natural world can not only be observed but holds itsef up for rational analysis from which we can deduce its workings
  • The fact that the process of evolution, through natural selection, has led to the development of intelligent human life - to the degree that intelligent life can observe and analyse the universe that it exists in
  • Theory of evolution - supported the idea of ann intelligent designer
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Tennant's anthropic and aesthetic arguments

  • Aesthetic argument - relates to the natural appreciation that humans have for things that are considered to be 'beautiful' and asks why we have such an appreciation as part of our nature
  • When looking at the rest of the natural world there appears to be no other species that reacts to its surroundings in this way
  • In fact, can be extended to the appreciation that humans have for usic, art poetry and other forms of literature as well as an appreciation for things like fashion, cosmetics and other such things that are said to enhance human beauty
  • If a purely rational approach is taken towards human beings as a species, then only those things that are necessary for our survival are necessary for us to have around us
  • Our understanding of the natural world informs us that living organisms operate on 'survival of the fittes' mechanism and that anything that does not aid evolution is quickly rejected by a species as it develops through time
  • Why then do we, as humans, have an appreciation of beauty? Why are aesthetics so imp to us?
  • T - appreciation = direct result of a benevolent God
  • Having designed the world so that it led to the development of intelligent human life (anthropic principle), God not only wanted his creation to live in the world, but also to enjoy it
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Tennant's anthropic and aesthetic arguments

  • Beauty and its appreciation were not necessary for humans to survive
  • For Tennant, the existence of beauty in the world was its own evidence for God's existence nd led, by way of revelation, to the enquiring minds discovering the fact of God's existence for themselves
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Whether cosmological arguments for God's existence

Whether cosmological arguments for God's existence are persuasive in the 21st century

  • 21st century is home to the modern scientific age
  • Humans able to share info like never before - access to all sorts of info about ourselves, and the universe
  • Includes ideas such as big bang theory, oscillating universe, multi-verses and quantum mechanics
  • For many, persuasive in terms of providing an answer to the age old question of 'how did the universe begin?'
  • Equally, detractors of traditional theistic argyments such as the cosmological argument, considerably undermine its claims to persuasiveness by pointing out that the arguments of Aquinas are flawed by an incorrect understanding of agreed scientific principle
  • Newton's First Law of Motion, for example, points out that the idea that nothing can move itself unless moved by another ignores the principle of inertia and is therefore wrong -
  • things can move themselves -
  • Anthony Kenny famously declared this observation as 'wrecking the First Way'
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Whether cosmological arguments for God's existence

  • With all this in mind...
  • seem the cosmological arguments, first put forward over 2 and a half thousand years ago by Ancient Greek philosophers, and then developed by medieval Christian monks, have little relevance in today's scientific world
  • As such, would be considered to lack any power to persuade people
  • However, cosmological argument is based on the fact that there is a universe
  • This is a posteriori observation - i.e. a scientific method
  • In which case, the fundamentals of the argument are based on the same assumptions as that of scientific theories
  • Seem to suggest that the cosmo arguments are persuasive in the 21st century
  • Should also consider that, whilst science can quite effectively explain how universe works (and therefore how it started), what it can't do is answer the q of why the universe started
  • Cosmo arg can - in fact, Craig's Kalam arg convincingly demonstrates that the universe was the result of a deliberate choice from a personal creator
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Whether cosmological arguments for God's existence

Conc -

  • The cosmo args are clearly based on cause and effect arguments; and so is science
  • For this reason alone, should not be discounted
  • For the religious believer, the additional faith dimension provides the important element of hope and comfort, rather than just cold, hard scientific fact
  • The 21st century, with all of its modern-day wonders, still has room in it to accept that the cosmo args for God's existence are still persuasive
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The effectivenes of the teleological argument for

The effectivenes of the teleological argument for God's existence

  • When Plato spoke of a 'craftsman' over 2 and a half thousand years ago, it makes us wonder why he came to such a conclusion when considering why world is the way that it is
  • Guiding intelligence --> laid foundations of the development of the idea through Judeo-Christian thought, culimating in the religious assertion that the world is the result of a divine designer
  • The effectiveness is said to be in its a posteriori, inductive for
  • Based on evidence of design obvious to the casual observer, the sheer compleity w/ many life forms and complex, inter-connected systems that support life -- point clearly to deliberate design
  • Analogical evidence provided by Paley is effective in pointing out that, just like a complex machine, our complex universe could not be the result of chance
  • It was down to an intelligent designing creator
  • These points all demonstrate how effective the telological arg is for G's existence
  • Tennant - surely proves beyond reasonable doubt that deliberately designed for intelligent human life
  • Everything we need is provided - not only for our survival, but also for our enjoyment
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The effectivenes of the teleological argument for

However...

  • When looked at more closely, the superficial convenience of the points made by Aquinas, Paley and Tennant, all start to show signs of weakness
  • The use of analogy is suspect at best as no human  machine can ever adequately compare to the complex universe which we inhabit
  • Therefore how can we put forward the idea of an intelligent designer based purely on this?
  • Similarities between machine and universe are too few
  • Even if we did accep the analogy as valid - what about the times when things go wrong in the universe? Is the designer therefore inept?
  • Or, as is fhte case for many machines, is it the case that there was more than one designer?
  • Did they leave when they had finished putting our universe together?
  • How do we know that this is a good universe? What have we go to compare it to?
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The effectivenes of the teleological argument for

  • There are those that suggest it is an arrogant claim to make to assume that we are able to identify the cause of the complexities of the universe by asserting a divine designer that fits into the theistic model of religion
  • Proposing such an idea and asking others to accept it as a truism flies in the face of the evidence of the scientific age
  • Modern-day evolutionary scientists such as Richard Dawkins point out that to hold such a view of a divine designer is 'unhelpful', 'childish' and 'superstitious nonsense' -
  • in that it prevents people from properly engaging with a 'grown-up' view of the world as a place governed by the laws of nature - not the laws of some god

Conc..

  • Despite the initial attractiveness of the teleological arg, the criticisms are simply too devastating and too wide ranging to ever accep tthat it is an effective argument for God's existence
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Quotes!!

  • 'Now whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is directed by the archer' ...
  • 'Some inteligent being exists by whom all naturall things are directed to their end; and this being we call God' - Aquinas
  • 'The saturation of Nature with beauty' - Tennant
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