Teleological Argument: Design & Regularity in the Universe as Evidence for God, Lecture notes of Design

Download Teleological Argument: Design & Regularity in the Universe as Evidence for God and more Lecture notes Design in PDF only on Docsity! 1 Induction Task – Phil Unit 1.1 Summer prep The Teleological Argument The argument from design, known as the Teleological Argument, suggests that the world displays elements of design, with things being adapted towards some overall end or purpose (telos in Greek). Such design suggests that the world is the work of a designer – God. The design argument is an a posteriori argument because it is based on external evidence. ‘With such signs of forethought in the design of living creatures, can you doubt they are the work of choice or design?’ Socrates Key Philosophers Plato Aristotle Aquinas Paley (1743-1805) Swinburne (1934 -) Darwin (18-9-82) Tennant ((1866-1957) Hume (1711-76) John Stuart Mill (1806-73) Dawkins 2. What can they do? What can an ant do? What can a microchip do? 1. In your view how does the universe show signs of order? 2 3. Why might this give some people reasons to believe in a designer (God)? _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Introduction Teleological arguments are often referred to as arguments from design, because they draw attention to the appearance of design in the universe as evidence for the existence of a designer – God. The Teleological Argument claims that there is a variety of features which suggest that the universe has a designer: • Order- regularities in the behaviour of objects and laws in the universe. • Benefit- the universe provides all that is necessary for life and more. The presence of beauty, for example, appears to be beneficial without being necessary. • Purpose- objects within the universe appear to be working towards an end or purpose. Indeed, the universe as a whole may be working towards an ultimate purpose. • Suitability for human life- the order exhibited by the universe provides the ideal environment for human life to exist and to flourish The connection between all of the above bullet points is the unlikelihood of them occurring by chance. 4. More key facts about the Teleological Arguments • They are a posteriori arguments because they are ______________________________________ • They are inductive arguments as it cannot conclusively __________________________________ • There is evidence of design in the world but we cannot prove that it is God conclusively. Video- You might try to watch some of the Design Argument Videos on the department Youtube channel. To help you. Luke Pollards 4 ten minute videos for Oxford University Press are really good! 5 7. Create a summary diagram of Aquinas’ teleological argument 6. To summarise: design, God, regularity, archer, arrow In nature there is clearly evidence of order and _____________________. Anything which has a __________________ requires a designer, which for Aquinas is __________________. This is the same as an ___________________ which only hits its target because it has been fired by an ______________________. 6 7 William Paley (1743-1805) formed his own version of the teleological argument in his book Natural Theology (1802). Why? Paley uses the analogy of the watchmaker to explain his argument. He asks you to imagine a man walking across a heath. The man comes across a stone and a pocket watch and analyses both. His inspection of the stone leads him to conclude that it could have been there forever; there is nothing about the stone that leads the man to believe it lies on the heath for a particular reason. However, imagine he were to inspect the pocket watch in the same way. Paley concludes that the man would not be able to make the same claim about this complicated, intricate, purposeful piece of machinery that he made about the stone. To the contrary: all evidence would show that the watch had been designed for a purpose (to tell the time) and designed with the necessary regularity (the mechanisms inside) to meet its purpose. Paley claimed that, in the same way, intricacies existed within nature that could not have come about by chance. These are just a couple of his examples: The Teleological Argument: William Paley In the 20th century, Arthur Brown argued that the ozone layer was also evidence of design. The ozone layer absorbs harmful radiation that would otherwise harm or kill living things on Earth ‘the ozone layer is mighty proof of the creator’s forethought. Could anyone possibly attribute this device to a chance evolutionary process? A wall which prevents death to every living thing, just the right thickness and exactly the correct defence gives every evidence of a plan’ My design argument for the existence of God is based on drawing analogies. An analogy is a comparison between two things. Paley compares the eye to a designed instrument such as the telescope, and concludes that ‘there is precisely the same proof that the eye was made for vision, as there is that the telescope was made for assisting it.’ Paley was also fascinated by the rotation of the planets in our solar system and felt strongly that the existence of gravity and the laws of motion were even more evidence of a divine hand at work in the design of the universe. 10 12. Design qua regularity: Design in relation to order and regularity in the universe Apply the Design Qua Regularity idea by comparing the design of the Universe/earth to a well presented garden. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ 13. Design qua purpose: Design in relation to the ways in which the parts of the universe appear to fit together for some purpose 9. Apply the design Qua purpose idea to explain how we might compare the design of the universe/earth to that of a machine e.g. TV. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ 11 14. Some philosophers (Eg: Hume and J.S. Mill) are very critical of the Design Argument. Do some research on a person who is critical (you might find a different one or use of the two suggestions above) and summarise their argument here. …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………