The Design Argument

PHILOSOPHICAL CHALLENGES

Hume-

• Apprentice Gods, suggestion of more than one God

Believes it to not be a good analogy to liken the Universe to a machine, the Universe is more like a vegetable, it grows of its own accord

Humans do not have sufficient knowledge or experience

The existence of evil and suffering would mean that God is immoral

J.S. Mill-

• Mill argues that because there is evil and suffering in the world, then the creator cannot have been all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving
• If the designer were omnibenevolent then the suffering of humanity would not have been included within the design
• As it is, then at least one of the 3 attributes of God (omnipotent, omnibevolent and omniscient) must be missing

SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGES

Darwin-

• He provided an alternative explanation for the design of the Universe without reference to God
• Development of life due to Evolution and Natural Selection

Dawkins-

• He has written several books to support Darwinian evolution and reject God
• He believes that Natural Selection wrongly gave the appearance of design leading to the mistake belief of a designer
• Any human behaviour is motivated by the need of the human genes to survive. Humans are no more than DNA carriers that will ensure the survival of the species