The Design or Teleological
Argument for the
Existence of God
What is the argument?
• The argument basically works as follows:
1. The world contains order, regularity, purpose,
and beauty.
2. By looking at an object containing these
properties, we may infer that is was designed.
3. The world is an object containing the properties
in P1
CONCLUSION: the world was designed; the designer
we call ‘God’
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Terms for the argument
• We call this the ‘Design Argument’ because it
attempts to prove God through the concept of
design.
• It is also known as the ‘Teleological Argument’
from the Greek telos, meaning ‘end’ or ‘purpose’.
The argument claims that the world displays
God’s purpose or end-goal.
• Some (not all) versions of this argument are called
analogical arguments, because they attempt to
make a proof based on analogy (comparisons).
The reasoning used in the argument:
• a posteriori – it is based on our
experience of the world around us.
• Inductive – the premises support but do
not entail the conclusion – probabilistic.
• Synthetic – the argument is not true or
false by the definition of its premises – it
has to be tested.
Responding to the world
• Very briefly, look at the following images.
• Then write down:
– What is your emotional response to the images?
– Can you infer any conclusions from the images? If
so, what are they?
– Is it in human nature to interpret these images in
the same or similar way?
Questions:
What is your emotional response to the
images?
Can you infer any conclusions from the
images? If so, what are they?
Is it in human nature to interpret these
images in the same or similar way?
Formulating an analogy
• One of the major methods in theistic design
arguments is the use of analogy.
• An analogy is a comparison between two or
more objects to make or prove a point.
• For example: “the world is like a well oiled
machine”.
• Task: take a couple of minutes to write
down other possible analogies, starting with
the phrase “the world is like …”
Historical background
• The first design argument was put forward by
the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.
• In his work The Timaeus, Plato suggests that a
cosmic craftsman (‘the Demiurge’) may have
brought together the materials of the universe,
to make it orderly and beautiful.
• The argument was developed in more depth in
Medieval philosophy, most notably by the 13th
century Italian philosopher and monk Saint
Thomas Aquinas.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (I Q2.3):
the Fifth Way from the ‘Five Ways’
The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. We see
that things which lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act
for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or
nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result.
Hence it is plain that not fortuitously, but designedly, do they
achieve their end. Now whatever lacks intelligence cannot
move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being
endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is shot
to its mark by the archer. Therefore some intelligent being exists
by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this
being we call God.
The Design or Teleological Argument
WILLIAM PALEY’S MECHANISTIC
ARGUMENT
Inference
• ‘Inference’ is the process of deriving
conclusions from what is known or assumed
to be true.
• Task: what (if anything) can you infer about
the producer of the following objects? …
Notebook computer, Christian Louboutin slingbacks, chocolate soufflé
Natural and Revealed Theology
• One of the key concepts we are looking at today is
natural theology; this may be distinguished from
revealed theology thus:
• Natural theology is the process of deriving knowledge of
God from the use of natural human reason. Any appeal
to general evidence, the world, and our understanding in
theology is natural theology.
• Revealed theology is the process of deriving knowledge
of God from contact with God Himself. This could take
the form of a vision or God, or discerning God through
His words in Holy Scripture.
Specific examples (add yours)
Natural theology
• God’s creative power is
found in a beautiful sunset.
Revealed theology
• “God spoke to Abraham …”
William Paley
• English philosopher and
clergyman, 1743-1805.
• Reforming tendencies,
‘progressive’ in the Church
and abolitionist (opposed to
the slave trade).
• Author of Natural Theology
(1802), his masterwork
arguing for philosophical
knowledge of God.
Natural Theology
• The full title of Paley’s book is Natural
Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and
Attributes of the Deity collected from the
Appearances of Nature
• Task: look carefully at all the words of the full
title. What does this tell us about Paley’s
intentions in authoring the work?
Chapter 2 of Natural Theology
In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a
stone and were asked how the stone came to be there, I
might possibly answer that for anything I knew to the
contrary it had lain there forever; nor would it, perhaps,
be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But
suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it
should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that
place, I should hardly think of the answer which I had
before given, that for anything I knew the watch might
have always been there. Yet why should not this answer
serve for the watch as well as for the stone? Why is it not
as admissible in the second case as in the first?
Watchmaker analogy
If we found a watch on a heath, we
would assume that it has some
designer. By analogy, we could say
the same of nature.
Nature displays purpose (e.g. birds
have wings to fly) and regularity
(e.g. planets orbit in regular
motion). As with a watch, the
attributes of purpose and regularity
are suggestive of a designer.
Paley’s argument, stated formally
1. From a complex object of many parts,
containing the qualities of regularity and
purpose, we may infer that it was designed.
2. The world and its contents are complex, and
of many parts, containing the qualities of
regularity and purpose.
3. We may infer that the world was designed.
CONCLUSION: the world has a designer - God
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The Design or Teleological Argument
DARWINIST OBJECTIONS AND
RESPONSES
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
• Naturalist and first exponent of the
theory of evolution.
• Expected to join the Anglican priesthood
and studied theology, but became more
interested in natural history.
• Travelled to the Galapagos Islands; his
experience of the animal life there
inspired him to develop his ideas.
• Darwin kept his ideas secret for a long
time, eventually publishing them in 1859.
Extract from Charles Darwin’s
The Origin of Species (1859):
Let it also be borne in mind how infinitely complex and close-fitting are the
mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical
conditions of life; and consequently what infinitely varied diversities of structure
might be of use to each being under changing conditions of life. Can it, then, be
thought improbable, seeing that variations useful to man have undoubtedly
occurred, that other variations useful in some way to each being in the great and
complex battle of life, should occur in the course of many successive generations?
If such do occur, can we doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born
than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage, however slight,
over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of procreating their
kind? On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the least degree
injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This preservation of favourable individual
differences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have
called Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest.
Questions:
• Why does this cause a problem for the design
argument?
• Which aspects of Paley’s argument are
challenged by Darwinism?
• How damaging is the Darwinist objection to
the design argument? Does it rule it out
completely?
Counter points
• See the ‘Intelligent Design’ movement – it
claims the theory of evolution is wrong or
over-stated (note: this has little / no scientific
support).
• God may have caused the process of evolution
as a means of bringing order and purpose into
the universe (James Sadowsky).
• Evolution depends on a careful balance of
conditions, possibly caused by God (F.R.
Tennant – the ‘anthropic principle’).
The ‘Intelligent Design’ Movement
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=NjsIn7yd2x8
Intelligent Design
• A group of scientists and
mathematicians at the Discovery
Institute have argued that Darwin was
wrong about natural selection.
• The complexity of nature may be due
to Intelligent Design.
• Michael Behe – organisms like the
bacterial flagellum display ‘irreducible
complexity’. They have too many
component parts to be explained
through natural selection.
Bacterial flagellum –
very complicated.
Criticism of Intelligent Design
• The evolution of complex organisms is
difficult to explain, but it does not mean
that they cannot be explained. ‘Tricky’
examples hardly disprove Darwinism.
• Biologist Richard Dawkins argues that
Intelligent Design has no genuine scientific
basis; not a single member of this
movement is published in a serious
scientific journal.
• The attempt to teach ‘Intelligent Design’
as a scientific theory is an under-hand
attempt to undermine secular education.
Responding to Darwinism
• Is there any way religious believers can
respond to the challenge from Darwinism?
• Could you re-formulate the argument, so that
it can survive these criticisms?
The Design or Teleological Argument
DAVID HUME’S CRITICISMS AND
TENNANT’S REFORMULATION
David Hume
• Scottish philosopher, 1711-1776
• Famed also as an historian and
economist, a controversial essayist
• A key figure in the ‘Scottish
Enlightenment’
• His views on religion are guarded in
his works, perhaps deliberately
obscure. Some accused him of
atheism, others of having an
irregular view of God.
Hume’s arguments in the Dialogues
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkIGF9Ug
a0A
• Listen to this very clear explanation of The
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion from
Nigel Warburton and take notes.
• Reflect: what do you think of the arguments
presented?
Ineffective
How effective are the criticisms?
Very effective
Summary of
Hume’s Criticisms
‘Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion’, 1779
Hume focuses on the weaknesses of the analogy and the
conclusion drawn from the available empirical evidence
1) We have no experience of world making
2) Arguments from analogy can only be suggestive not
conclusive (issue of scale, mechanic/organic)
3) The available evidence cannot prove the God of classical theism
(multiple designers? The failed attempt of an imperfect designer?)
REMEMBER: these criticisms are applicable to Paley. However,
Hume was criticising the design argument in general – Paley had
not yet even written ‘Natural Theology’ (1805).
Where do theists go now?
Abandon the argument
Base theism on
Something else
Reject theism
Re-state the argument
Reject / reply to
Hume & Darwinian
criticisms
Reformulate the
argument on a
different basis
Beauty
Personal faith
Revealed theology
Different theistic arguments
Anthropic principle
Argue for non-classical theology
F.R. Tennant and the
anthropic principle
• Cambridge academic and clergyman 1866-1957.
• “Nature is meaningless and valueless without God behind it
and Man in front.” (Philosophical Theology, 1930)
• Tennant is arguing that humanity is at the forefront of
creation, because the circumstances of the universe
uniquely and surprisingly enable human life to emerge.
• Tennant was the first theist philosopher to use the
fundamental characteristics of the universe as lifenurturing to offer a new form of teleological argument;
many have since followed this path.
Anthropic reasoning
• From the Greek ‘anthropos’
(human/man); anthropic reasoning
argues from the human perspective.
• Write down a list of the factors
necessary for your existence.
• Reflect: are humans fortunate in
having the conditions of life met? Is
it surprising that the world is set up
for life?
Weak and strong principles
• ‘Weak anthropic
principle’
• The circumstances in
our universe are such
that the emergence of
life is possible.
• This could fit in with
theism (God has
enabled life), but does
not so clearly suggest
the idea of creation.
• ‘Strong anthropic
principle’
• The circumstances in
our universe are such
that the emergence of
life is inevitable
• Theists could use this to
argue teleologically,
that God has intended a
human life producing
universe.
Anthropic teleological argument
1. The emergence of human life in our universe depends on
numerous factors: planetary conditions, fundamental laws
of physics, etc.
2. Human life has emerged in our universe.
3. A life-friendly universe such as ours is highly improbable;
almost any other set of circumstances we can think of
would have been life-hostile.
4. A designer or intelligent Creator would make sense of our
improbable universe.
CONCLUSION: God exists
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A new design argument?
Keith Ward
“The argument in its
seventeenth-century form …
may have been superseded by
Darwin. But the design
argument still lives, as an
argument that the precise
structure of laws and constants
that seem uniquely fitted to
produce life by a process of
evolution is highly improbable.
The existence of a designer or
creator God makes this much
less improbable. That is the new
Design Argument, and it is very
effective.”
But can you criticise Ward’s
‘new’ argument?
• Your criticisms:
1.
2.
3.
The Design or Teleological Argument
THE ARGUMENT IN PERSPECTIVE
Richard Swinburne
• One of the most eminent modern philosophers of
religion is Richard Swinburne, Professor of
Philosophy at Oxford (retired).
• Swinburne is the chief exponent of what Ward
calls the “new design argument” – an argument
which takes a different path from the preDarwinian argument of Paley.
• His argument is set out in The Existence of God.
• Swinburne begins by distinguishing between
spatial and temporal order. ‘Spatial order’ is the
subject of Paley’s argument – how parts are fitted
together in an orderly way by a designer.
Swinburne regards this argument as defeated by
Darwinism.
Swinburne continued
I pass on to consider a form of teleological argument which seems to
me a much stronger one-the teleological argument from the
temporal order of the world. The temporal order of the universe is, to
the man who bothers to give it a moment's thought, an
overwhelmingly striking fact about it. Regularities of succession are
all pervasive. For simple laws govern almost all successions of
events. In books of physics, chemistry, and biology we can learn how
almost everything in the world behaves. The laws of their behaviour
can be set out by relatively simple formulae which men can
understand and by means of which they can successfully predict the
future. The orderliness of the universe to which I draw attention here
is its conformity to formula, to simple, formutable, scientific laws.
The orderliness of the universe in this respect is a very striking fact
about it. The universe might so naturally have been chaotic, but it is
not-it is very orderly.
The God conclusion
• Given the striking pervasiveness of orderly laws of
nature, Swinburne asks, how are we to explain the
universe as we find it?
• Swinburne claims that scientists are able to define
laws, say how they work, and discover new ones.
However, what scientists may never do is find a basis
for the most fundamental laws in the first place.
• In other words, the scientific method cannot explain
why there is deep and fundamental order in the first
place.
• If there is no possible scientific explanation for this,
then we are required to look for another simple and
elegant explanation – the most likely answer, he
claims, is God.
Objections to modern design arguments
• Multiverse theory – there may be and may have been
many universes, most of which are chaotic and do not
sustain life. If there are many universes, the chance of
an orderly universe emerging are not remote.
• Humans over-state their importance – famously put
forward by the American poet Mark Twain. The world
was not created as an amazing habitat for man; man
exists because of the world, not the other way around.
Unconvincing
Rate Swinburne’s
argument
Convincing
Theological objections to design
• Finally, it may surprise you to know that some
theists have objected to design arguments on
theological grounds; they see these arguments as
misrepresenting or diminishing the divine.
• A classic example of this is the great artist, poet,
and mystic William Blake (1757-1827). He wrote a
work tellingly titled There is No Natural Religion
(1788), which attacks the idea of the human
senses encompassing the idea of the divine.
• Blake argues that “none could have other than
natural or organic thoughts” if reliant upon
sensory perception alone. This removes the
revelation of a transcendent God from the heart of
religion, which Blake did not accept.
Isaac Newton, by William Blake (1795)
Blake’s opposition to natural religion is typified in his
famous painting of Isaac Newton. Here, Newton is
unflatteringly depicted at the bottom of the sea, fixed
upon his mathematical drawings.
Blake, a visionary, opposed the idea of religion being
discovered materially and naturally, through science. The
possibility of different types of perception of the divine
are important for Blake: man “perceives more than sense
can discover”.
Final Questions
• How has the argument developed over time?
• Has the argument become more or less
convincing over time?
• Should theists make use of this argument to
support their beliefs?
• What alternatives do theists have to design
arguments?
Essay: IB Philosophy
To what extent is it possible to offer a convincing
a posteriori proof for the existence of the divine,
based upon the apparent design of the
universe?
Essay: A Level
(i) Explain the main features and strengths of
the teleological argument for the existence of
God [21 marks]
(ii) Consider critically the view that
philosophical criticisms and scientific
evidence show that the argument is now
unconvincing [9 marks]