Teleological argument evaluation

Evaluation of Teleological Argument

Hume's Critisisms:

• Rejection of the idea of design
  • Mechanistic analogies are innapropriate:
    • Such analogies are chosen as they encourage the idea of a designer
    • More like a vegetable?
  • Apparent order could be due to chance:
    • Atom arrangements constantly changing
    • Inevitable that order would eventually emerge
    • Universe may alternate between periods of chaos and order?
• Little can be said about any designer
  • Anthropomorphic:
    • Humans have no knowledge of universe making= can't know about the qualities of a possible desinger
    • Not necessarily the God of classical theism
      • Cause must be proportional to its effects- a lesser being could be responsible
      • Intelligent minds are attached to physical bodies- creator may be mortal and dead
      • Teamwork?
    • Problem of evil

Evaluation of Paley's Design Argument:

Strengths:

• Swinburne: Existence of a single omnipotent God is the simplest explanation
• Swinburne: Evolution requires an explanation so cannot destroy Teleological- laws of natural science do not explain themselves
• Evil may be unavoidable for God to bring about good
• Idea that 'nature shows intention' is supported by the Anthropic Principle (the belief that the cosmological constants of the universe had to be precisely what they are for intelligent life to develop- we are not here by chance, God fine tuned these…