The Teleological
Argument
The idea that there is evidence of
design in the universe which
suggests a designer
The classical argument
• The universe has order, purpose and regularity
• The complexity of the universe shows evidence of
design
• Such design implies a designer
• The designer of the universe is God
Two arguments for design
• Design Qua (relating to) Regularity
– The universe works to a particular order
– Planets rotate
– There are natural laws
• Design Qua Purpose
– Parts of the universe appear to fit for a
purpose
Design Qua Regularity
• Thomas Aquinas’ The fifth way
• Non-intelligent things produce order
– They require an intelligent being to do this
• “Now whatever lacks knowledge cannot move
towards an end, unless it be directed by some
being endowed with knowledge and intelligence;”
• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Design Qua Purpose
• Response to 17th century mechanistic
physics
• Isaac Newton (1642-1727) – laws of
gravity and motion
• Universe is like a machine with all the parts fitting
and working together like clockwork
• Pierre Laplace (1749 – 1827) – no need
for God
• One day we will know everything through science
Design Qua Purpose
• William Paley (1743-1805)
– Responded to the new scientific ideas
– Book – Natural Theology (1802)
• Compared a ‘stone’ with a ‘watch’
• Would find that the parts of a watch had been put
together for a purpose
• An intelligent person would infer a designer
• Similarly the parts of the universe infer a designer
• Similarly the parts of the body infer a designer
William Paley
• The first part of Paley’s argumnet is
Design Qua Purpose
• The second part of his argument is Design
Qua Regularity
• Using Newton’s discoveries, he points out that the
rotation of the planets could not have come about
by chance
• He concludes design by an external agent - God
David Hume (1711-1776)
• Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
(1779)
• Why Conclude a beginning?
• Why conclude the creator to be the God of
theism?
– Why not one or more lesser gods?
• Flaws in design – suffering, death –
support the idea of an imperfect designer
David Hume (1711-1776)
• Hume’s arguments against design:
– Humans have limited knowledge and
experience
– Analogy of human design suggests many
gods not one
– Analogy of universe to machine not good
• More like a vegetable that grows
– Epicurean Hypothesis points to chance
Epicurean Hypothesis
• At time of creation universe consisted of
random particles
• Universe is eternal
• Inevitable that eventually an ordered state
would develop
• Therefore the stability and order is the
result of random movement of particles not
a designer
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
• An empiricist
• knowledge grounded in experience
– God is described as
– All-powerful
– All-knowing
– All-loving
– There is suffering in the world
– An all-loving God would not allow suffering
– Therefore either God
• could not avoid suffering, did not know about it or
does not care
Charles Darwin (1809 -1882)
• The Origins of Species (1859)
• Random variations within species result in
– Survival of those with best advantage (the
fittest)
– Demise of those disadvantaged
• Therefore a process of natural selection
rather than design by God
Putting it altogether
•
Write bullet points that show how you
would go about answering the following
exam question:
a) Explain the main arguments for design as
presented by Aquinas and Paley (33)
b) ‘Hume makes a more convincing case than
Paley.’ Discuss (17)