Critiques - Teleological Argument

David Hume:

Evidential Problem of evil

-> evidence of evil and suffering in the world - outside of a free will argument (Natural evils e.g. disease, famine, natural disasters that cause mass destruction and death)

-> only suggests of an amateur or incompetant designer, far from the traditional concept of God suggested by both Aquinas and Paley.

Supported by John Stuart Mill - 

-> In his essay Nature and the Utility or Religion, Mill remarked that the way in which nature allowed so much suffering and cruelty as part of everyday life seemed to suggest that either there was no designer or that the designer was limited in his ability to prevent evil and suffering.

->The problem of evil and innocent suffering is a major attack on the idea that the world was designed by a kind and loving God.-> doesn't coincide with his attributes.

David Hume

Epicurean Hypothesis

->Argued that order may have just been originally chaos that found order by coincidence.

-> time of creation - universe was a chaotic mess of random particles - gradually evolved in a way that resembles order  - could be a linkd argument to scientific claims of the big bang.

-> the order is not evidence of an intelligent designer, but rather the state of random particles.

+

Order is a necessity for a the survival and existence of a world.

-> if nothing was suited to its purpose, it wouldn't survive + we would not be here.

Support…