...Explain Paley’s Teleological argument (25) According to the argument from design, or teleological argument, the design or order found in the universe provides evidence for the existence of an intelligent designer (or orderer) usually identified as God. A classic version of this argument appears in William Paley's 1802 Natural Theology, where Paley compares the complexity of living things to the inferior complexity of a watch that we deduce to be designed by an intelligent being. Just as a watch could not exist without a watchmaker, Paley argued, living things could not exist without an intelligent designer. The teleological or design argument is a derivative of the Greek word Telos which means end, goal or purpose. It is this end or purpose that Paley is looking for that suggests the existence of a divine creator. Aquinas’ fifth way ‘From the governance of things’ or design qua regularity argument (qua meaning through or pertaining to) foregrounding the argument for design, observed the universe and saw that everything in the universe appeared to be working in some sort of order. In particular he noticed that ‘natural bodies’ behaved in a regular way. Here Aquinas addresses flowers or insects - One could use the example of a daffodil that flowers in spring time. He then goes on to evaluate the fact that these natural bodies ‘lack intelligence’ - they are not conscious or sentient beings of their own movement, yet even so they appear to move or act in regular fashion - as...
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...River, to the ledges of the mighty Grand Canyon, or even to the peak of Mt. Fuji there is an immense amount of things on this Earth that are so incredible it is hard to believe science and chance created these magnificent things. So what is the best explanation for these occurrences? I believe that these occurrences scream of an intelligent designer which also leads us to the existence of God. First I must explain what an argument for design is and then we will look at Paley’s Watchmaker Theory to give us better insight on this argument. Then I will point to Betty and Cordell’s argument that the things of our universe lead us to a belief in God (intelligent designer) and that the Big Bang theory is not the best explanation alone for the existence of God, and that a multiverse is not the best explanation for the existences in our universe. Design arguments most often try to explain the existence of God by pointing to various occurrences and objects within our world and universe that lead us to believe that there is an intelligent designer. According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, design arguments usually consist of three premises. One is a premise that asserts that the material universe exhibits some verifiable property (F); Two is a premise that asserts that (F) is persuasive evidence of intelligent design or purpose; Three concludes that the best or most probable explanation that the material universe exhibits (F) is that there exist an intelligent designer who intentionally...
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...William Paley’s takes on the design argument in an analogy form which in its most basic form states if a watch is complex then it must have a maker if we compare to a human eye which is more complex then it proves that an intelligent creator thus exist. His argument is logically persuasive thought Natural theology. As for David Hume’s, “Dialogues concerning Natural Religion,” contra argument he finds various flaws in Paley’s argument.(need to explain) What I established after reading these two arguments is that it is difficult to come to a conclusion about the existence of god. Paley’s and Hume’s arguments are both inductive arguments discussing the existence of an intelligent creator, god, a topic that can never be proven to be true and absolute....
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...arguing the existence of God, there are numerous teachings and arguments, some more rational than others, the classical arguments being the most well known to all. The claim in all these arguments uses a non-religious approach to logically reason the existence of God, rather than argue on the premise of faith to obtain a rational belief; a belief reasoning as justification. The classical arguments are divided into what is considered empirical and rational arguments, with every individual finding their own reasoning to relate to them. In this essay, I will explore the extent of how the classical arguments can proves God existence, and why some people counter-argue they cannot. The first of the classical arguments being Anselm’s Ontological argument, an argument attempting to prove God’s existence through abstract reasoning alone. The argument is entirely a priori as it does not include real evidence or anything factual, seeking to demonstrate that God exists based on the concept of God alone. The outline of the argument is that because we have an idea of God, an idea of a being which no greater can be thought, therefore God must exist. The argument relates to three concepts: the concept of God, perfection and of existence. The three concepts associate with one another, arguing that perfection is part of the concept of God, and that perfection entails existence, therefore the concept of God entails God’s existence. Anselm’s argument is set on the basis of a conception of God as “that...
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...According to William Paley’s “The Teleological Argument, the existence of God is based on the evidence that the world has an intelligent purpose and order and that the conclusion must be a higher power. Paley claims that the universe is set as a whole and that evidence has been shown of an intelligent designer. His arguments are based on empirical evidence , which is what we can see . The parts of the universe have an order, difficulty and simplicity that bring to mind the parts of a finely crafted machine. Paley also argues that there is further evidence for a Creator God in a Universe. Just because we don't know who the artist might be, it doesn't follow that we cannot know that there is one. The main question is “Does God truly exists.” The Bible also appears to reiterate the Teleological Argument when it states in Psalm 19:1-3: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. People of many years ago and today have different views on how this world began. People believe in different God’s and that they ruled the ancient years because of what people were taught about leaders or a higher power. So ask yourself, “If there is no God, than how does this big universe exist.” Because of this question there had to be greater power than just man to develop a whole universe and laws. As an example from a Christian...
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...When it comes to religion, many have spent lifetimes debating over the existence of a Supreme Being. With the amount of varying belief systems, consisting of contrasting views and practices, it is difficult to find a common ground to discuss these different religious views. However, there is one simple question that brings nations together; does God exist? This is an inquisition that Has stumped many and has resulted in the emergence of countless theories to prove the existence of a Supreme Being. Following the three different arguments, defended and criticized by numerous philosophers, the ontological, cosmological, and teleological argument are indisputable proof of the existence of God. The idea of God has been around for thousands of...
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...The Design Argument The design argument is one of the traditional arguments of the existence of God. This argument has a variety of forms. This is an argument that is in support of God’s existence. Many philosophers have their doubt that a God exists. There are philosophers who have supported the design argument, one of the philosophers being Aqunias. Aquinas attacks the other arguments made against the existence of God. There is a formulation that is close to the one that Aquinas used. The formulation is “(1) Among objects that act for an end, some have minds whereas others do not. (2) An object that acts for an end, but does not itself have a mind, must have been designed by a being that has a mind. (3) Hence, there exists a being with a mind who designed all mindless objects that act for an end.” In these formulations it is being explained that an object (us human beings, or anything) acts for an end, basically stating living our lives through our purpose and purpose only. The design argument is also known as the teleological argument, teleogy meaning purpose. The second point translates into the third, it is saying that there was a being who created us that has a purpose, that being is God. There are two sorts of the design argument, they are the global and local design arguments. A global design argument explains general features of the whole universe and argues that this feature should be explained by the hypothesis that it is the product of intelligent design. So...
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...The teleological argument infers the existence of a designer - god, from the apparent design of the universe. For the inference to work the arguments for apparent design must be sound. To argue for design explicitly is to observe natural organisms closely. Life appears to have a 'telos'. Living creatures are made up of organs that are set to perform a given task. For example, the heart pumps blood around the body and the lungs respires so we can breath. More astonishing however are how small parts of a complex system work so wonderfully and intricately in conjuction with each other to serve a purpose. Suppose the eye. The eye has numerous features that allow sight. If one small part of the stops functioning, it would lead to the over all disfunction of the system. This complexity suggests a plan - a plan that follows a purpose. Thus, there must be an intelligent planner and designer. Paley develops an analogy to infer the existence of a designer (god) by identifying what it is exactly about human artifacts that leads us to the conclusion that it must have had a designer. When we happen to find a watch on the ground, surely we wouldn't just think that the watch got there by its own or that the watch self-evolved. When we observe the watch closely, we can identify design-like properties. For example, the coordinations of small parts of the machine that allows the hand of the clock to tick in a 360 degree angle and the fact that the watch constitutes the concept of time and numbers...
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...Let’s face it, our opinions are going to be biased. Some believe in God, some believe in a higher power, some do not believe at all. So the way that we interpret these articles are all going to be different. I for one do not believe in God, mostly because why would ‘the greatest being’ in all the world decide that war, famine, disease and death are good things to have for his creations. The Ontological argument was the lease convincing argument. God is not perfect, God makes mistakes. The Cosmological Argument was easy to read and did not make me laugh as I tried to pick through them. Paley’s Teleological argument was also believable, but it and the Cosmological argument are both similar. The first ontological (a word that relates to the branch of metaphysics that studies the nature of existence), argument for the existence of God was established by the Benedictine monk known as Anselm. Anselm defines God by saying God is that “which nothing greater can be conceived.” God is perfection and the greatest possible being. But it has a number of consequences. One of them is that it becomes impossible to demonstrate that God is not possible. How are you supposed to debunk him if he is perfect? God is said to have omnipotence, but can God create a round square? Can he defy logic?...
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...the basis that everything has an explanation. The design argument uses the same rational approach when asking why the world is ordered rather than chaotic when it could so easily be. However the design arguments has weaknesses which some may see to far outweigh its strengths. The design arguments focus on a number of observable characteristics of the world that suggests design and believes that such features as these are convincing observable marks of design and require some kind of explanation there fore the order and regularity imply an intelligent designer that must be ‘God’, however Hume contradicts this by saying that if like effects produce like causes, then God must be very anthropomorphic. Hume argues that this could lead us to assume many things such as there may be many gods or that they may even be imperfect. Hume also argued that if many carpenters collaborate together to build a ship. Why should there not be many gods collaborating to build the world? Again this is not providing the god of classical theism. The role of analogy is central to Paley’s design argument. An analogy identifies a number of common features of two or more things. Paley compared a watch with the universe, because he identified the shared common features of order, purpose and regularity. By implication, the watch demands a watchmaker and likewise the universe demands an intelligent designer which classical theism explains to be God. On the contrary, Hume argued it is an unsound analogy...
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...God is an all-powerful, all-knowing, and good God. He is also eternal and Omni-present. His existence was proven through faith and miracles. The idea of a perfect being has been converted into a source of disbelief and controversy. The idea of anything beyond the supernatural or spiritual make it very difficult for those to believe its authenticity, especially in Western societies. However, Jesus Christ is a vital figure in history. More books have been written about Christ than any other person (Maldonado). Today those who are antagonistic would claim that The Big Bang Theory is what formed the Universe; living creatures, time itself, and everything else along with it. They would also bring to light how natural selection and evolution exist. For antagonists and or atheist the world was created by a chain of reactions. If an event where to happen it was caused by something outside itself. There is no actual evidence to the singular causational reaction that is what created the universe. The same could be said about evolution, Darwin himself could not answer his own question. Despite the fact that he made such an impact in science the question remained “How did evolution occur?”. Or how an animalistic brain...
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...omnipotent, morally perfect god? Faith is defined in two ways a secular meaning and a religious meaning. The secular meaning is a strong trust or belief in someone or something, this could be said that human reasoning must be involved. The second meaning of faith, which falls under a religious meaning, is belief in a god through spiritual understanding. Well doesn’t the definition give you some insight? Both depend on one another to truly come to a conclusion, if a higher power exists or not? Merely a use of human reasoning and not the latter would lead us to an infinite search of the truth. Now, I want the reader to notice the two very distinct meanings, one involves human reasoning, the other involves spiritual understanding. An example of the secular meaning is in William Paley’s “The Argument of Design” he mentions the watch and how we come to a conclusion that the watch must a have a maker. We as humans base our conclusions on “examinations and some previous knowledge of the subject” (Paley 5). We could say, this applies to science and philosophy as a whole, they rely upon human reasoning. Now, the watch mentioned by Paley, he explains how something built with complexity could not just come to existence without having had a maker. This falls under the secular meaning of faith, in which based off our observations, past knowledge of craftsmanship, and human reasoning an object such as a watch could be created into existence. Even though we could not explain the other parts of the...
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...Comment on the view that arguments against miracles are stronger than those arguments in support of them David Hume proposed his definition of a miracle but in spite of this Hume had criticisms claiming that it was not reasonable to believe in miracles as the evidence was totally unreliable. He stated two weaknesses to the belief in miracles: 1) Based on our large experience of natural laws, it makes more sense to say that there is some other explanation for example that we cannot know every natural law. For example, had Jesus been crucified in our time and come back to life after three days. Overall this could be regarded as a miracle today but it might not be considered as a miracle in the future 2) The evidence of miracles often comes from the testimony of others. We should not rely on such second-hand accounts, because accounts of others cannot be trusted. For example in Fatima thousands of witnesses claimed to have seen the sun spin and fall out of the sky however the witnesses may have been deceived because of their excitement. Firstly, Hume challenged the testimonies of miraculous occurrences on the ground that there were not enough reliable witnesses. There have never been enough a miracle which has been witnessed by a sufficiently large number reliable, objective witnesses. For example there will never be a large enough amounts of educated, reasonable, trustworthy and respected men for us to believe their testimony the resurrection of Jesus was seen by...
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...Design Arguments St. Thomas Aquinas was an important theologian and philosopher whose work on the nature and existence of God and his arguments for a moral code based on the ‘natural law’ God has instilled in the universe have formed the central teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. He sought to bring faith and reason together in order to develop the place of theology in the world. The argument from design finds its origins in Aquinas’ Summa Theologica and is the fifth of his five ways of proving the existence of God. Aquinas’ argument can be explained as follows: “The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. We see that things which lack knowledge, 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 they achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly. Now whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is directed by the archer. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.” Aquinas argued from design qua regularity. He saw the overall order in the world as proof of a designer: ‘this being we call God.’ Aquinas stated that everything works together to achieve order, despite the fact that inanimate objects have no mind or rational powers to achieve...
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...Philosophy of Religion My God or Your God Throughout the history of mankind, humans have believed and had no doubt in the existence of a God or gods, for thousands of years. People lived their lives believing and worshiping some sort of superior power. But after thousands of years, we notice that in the 19th century and beyond to present day, people have lost connection with God and stopped having faith. In regards to faith, I believe that we are limited with evidence, therefore we have limited answers. With so many beliefs, religions, and faiths out there in the world, it is easy for someone to give up in their faith, and end up believing in nothing. We then potentially become atheists or agnostics. Also, if we are born with no strong background religion, then it will be impossible for someone to believe in God or any faith. I think people take the easy route; if it does not make sense to them, then they automatically do not believe in it. This acquisition questions our purpose of living in this world. Why are we here? What is our purpose? These questions I believe are difficult or maybe even impossible to understand. As a Gnostic theist I strongly believe that God does exist. I am going to defend my position using the teleological argument. Here are the reasons that I am going to discuss that justify the existence of God: 1. the universe has complex purposes. 2. The human mind is incapable of understanding the complexity and aims of the universe. 3. There are no valid...
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