The Teleological Argument Summary

The Teleological Argument
1. Thomas Aquinas
  1. Way 5 is a design argument
    1. Aquinas argued that everything in the natural work is directed to some goal, & follows natural laws set up by something which thinks (i.e. God)
    2. Regularity of succession argument- Aquinas' archer example
    3. Aquinas was influenced by Aristotle's theory of 4 Causes; links Final Cause to God
  2. Weaknesses in his argument
    1. Does everything follow a general law set down by a designer
    2. Anthony Flew suggests that Aquinas' claim that things in nature are directed to some purpose goes against the available evidence
    3. Swinburne claims that Aquinas assumes what is at issue- whether God imposes regularity & laws on the universe
2. William Paley
  1. Presents a purpose argument
    1. Compares a rock and a watch:
      1. The watch demonstrates fitness for a purpose; parts work together/ fit for a purpose/ the parts are ordered
      2. Part 2 of arg: imagination function of the watch= producing other watches
        Watch like this suggests the existence of something conscious and intelligent
    2. Argues by analogy that nature requires a much greater designer than the watch
      1. The complexity of nature is illustrated by the human eye
Challenges to Design Arguments
1. J. S. Mill
  1. Questioned the goodness of nature given the apparent cruelty to be found within nature (e.g. the behaviour of a digger wasp)
2. David Hume
  1. Nothing to which a universe can be satisfactorily compared
    1. Paley- lack of knowledge increases our sense of wonder
    2. Swinburne- reasonable to say more about the cause of the event other than just it causes the event
  2. Analogy of the house builder and an architect; challenges about the design's quality (the problem of evil)
    1. Paley- rejects this; considered the issue to be whether the universe exhibited signs of designs
  3. Other possible explanations than God for apparent design in the universe (e.g. DNA today)
  4. Is there evidence the world has a single designer? (The analogy of a great ship)
  5. Random activity can lead to orderliness rather than disorder (supported by the discovery of natural selection)
Natural Selection
1. Darwin's discovery was influenced by:
  1. Discoveries during the voyage of the Beagle
  2. Sir Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology
  3. Thomas Malthus' idea that food supplies increase arithmetically and populations grow exponentially
2. Natural selection can explain the emergence of complex living organisms without any need to refer to design, a designer, or purpose

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The Teleological Argument Summary

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	Created by Miranda Daniel about 9 years ago