The design argument was formulated by Paley. His watch analogy is an a posteriori argument which gives empirical evidence the structure is that it explains that the existence of God is the best explanation for the evidence available. His argument says that the world and everything in it are so intricate and complex that they must have been designed. He goes on the mention that if he found a watch lying on the ground he would take from it that there must have been a designer due to the organisation of parts put together for a purpose so even if we had no previous knowledge of watchers or makers we would look at all of the small pieces that make up a watch, arranged in a specific way meaning they fulfil the purpose of telling the time and all of those pieces could not have fallen together so therefore must have been designed. This is an analogy of things in the natural world for example, the human eye is made of small parts working together to create the purpose of sight, we infer this must be the result of design not chance.
Similarly, William Paley, strongly believed that the observation of the intricate complexity of the universe concludes that there must be a creator. Paley believed that this creator was God. In ‘Natural Theology’, he used the analogy of the watch to his ideas. He explained that if you came across an intricately designed watch, you could conclude that watch was not made by chance and was designed with purpose and placed there. For Paley, the different parts of watch work perfectly together to fulfil a purpose.
The watch analogy is a teleological argument, meaning it is an a posteriori (after experience) argument for the existence of God based on apparent design and purpose in the universe. By way of
The cosmological argument speaks of the attributes of a Creator, the teleological argument deals with that of an Intelligent Designer and lastly the moral argument which infers to a Moral Being. They have their faults but when brought together they create a strong argument for theism and the existence of God. References: McCloskey, H.J. “On Being an Atheist”. Question One.
In short, it would have needed a designer. Thus, in the same way that a complex system such as a watch needs a designer, a system so near-infinitely complex as the world must have also had an intelligent designer – God. The analogy of the watch serves as an analogy for the world: it demonstrates purpose, design and telos. All parts of the watch unite to fulfill a purpose, this cannot be explained by chance. Paley’s argument is also based on regularity.
The teleological argument, also known as the argument for design, is commonly known as an argument for God’s existence or the existence or an intelligent designer/creator, based on empirical evidence. William Paley was a British theologian who wrote in defence of theism (God) and Christianity, suggesting he was a Christian. He strongly believed that the earth had a creator and uses his analogy of the watch and the watchmaker as proof of this. Paley examined a watch and observed how the mechanics work, all the instruments within the watch fitted together to make the watch functional. He said that the watch couldn’t just appear on its own and start ticking; he said it must have had some sort of creator, the watchmaker.
In David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, the author employs three fictional characters to discuss God's existence. Of these three characters, I will be discussing a conversation between Cleanthes, who argues God can be known through rational thought, and Philo, a philosophic skeptic. The main point I intend to discuss is the argument from design. The basic premise of this argument is that an intelligent designer made the Earth. When one observes the world and nature, it seems that everything has an intricate relationship and interconnectedness with everything else.
THEOLOGY ESSAY A)EXPLAIN THE KEY IDEAS OF THE DESIGN ARGUMENT AND GIVE REASONS WHY SOME PHILOSOPHERS REJECTED THIS ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. The Design argument looks at the order and purpose, or telos, in the world and states that it implies that there must be a designer who made the world ‘just right’ for human existence. Religious believers go on to state that this designer is God. The argument states that if one uses one’s senses to look at order, such as gravity and the motion of the planets, which exists in the world, it is likely that one will accept that there is a designer God who created the world and gave it this order. Thus, the argument is a posteriori, based on experience, and inductive, containing a conclusion that
The most famous one was written by William Paley (1743-1805). He claimed that the complexity and efficiency of natural objects such as the eye, which is very complex and has a very important function, is evidence that God must have designed it. Paley says that just by looking at a watch we already know, subconsciously, that a watchmaker designed it. So when looking at the eye, why cannot we agree a maker designed it? This argument relies on the idea that a deigned object, a watch in our case, is very similar to the eye, which is a natural object.
The design argument outlines that the world has been designed, and therefore requires a designer. This designer, has to have been God because he is the only being that has the power and will to do so. This argument is a posteriori because it bases it’s argument on observations within the Universe. It is also an inductive proof because it has more than one possible conclusion. There are a few ideas that support the idea of the world being designed, one of them being Aquinas’s Fifth Way.