What are the main ideas for the teleological argument for the existence of God? Essay

The teleological argument more commonly known as the design argument for the existence of God uses the idea of apparent order in the universe and natural world to prove the existence of God. The word teleological comes from the Greek word teleos meaning ‘end’ or ‘purpose’. It is a posteriori, synthetic and inductive argument meaning it is an argument in which the truth of a proposition may only be known to be true after empirical evidence has been used to prove the proposition true or false

William Paley came up with the most famous form of the design argument which was published in his book ‘natural theology’. He argued that if you found a watch on the ground you would assume that it had been designed because it is so complex in the way it works to its purpose therefore could not be a product of mere chance. In the same way our world is too complex because of the way that things just fit together for their purpose to have just come about as a matter of chance. Paley used the idea of the human eye and the way that it is adapted for sight as an example. The different parts of the eye work together to produce sight. The complex design indicates that there must be an intelligent designer.

Richard Dawkins in his book the blind watchmaker however argues that this cannot be the case as there are so many faults in the world that it could not have been planned and that things came about through natural selection, the “blind, unconscious, automatic process" which explains the existence and purposeful form of all life. He also argues that if it was God who created the world then he did not do a very good job as there are so many faults which in turn cause us pain and suffering. This can the lead us to believe that god may not be all loving, all powerful and all knowing. As if he was all these things then he would know of suffering and be able to and would do something