Assess What Can Be Concluded From The Teleological Argument

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Wednesday 1st November 2006                

Assess What Can Be Concluded From the Teleological Argument (24marks)

The teleological argument (often referred to as the Design Argument) deciphers that the world cannot have been a chaotic chance occurrence, but rather a well designed creation with a supreme creator who Paley observes to be God.  For the purpose of this argument, we are referring to the God of classical theism who is supposedly, “all-loving,” “all-powerful,” and “all-knowing.”  The word ‘telos’ is Greek for aim, goal or purpose and the word ‘logos’ means reason and the relevance of these can be seen throughout the argument as countless philosophers over a period of more than 200 years have tried to prove, using this argument, that the world was created with an aim and purpose by God.

With the publishing of the Natural Theology (1802) came the first comprehensive and detailed description of the Teleological Argument, by the Peterborough born William Paley, although Hume had published a similar idea many years previously.  Paley was a devout Anglican and sought to prove the existence of God through reason, at the time he published many books about Christianity and philosophy which were very influential.

Paley explains his argument simply to the reader by using an analogy of himself stood on a heath.  He observes two objects initially, a stone and a watch.  As he comes across the stone he decides that there is nothing to make him think other than that it has always been there and it has occurred naturally; it requires little or no explanation.  However he then compares this to a watch which clearly has intricate parts and cannot have occurred.  Despite having never met a watch maker he is aware that one must exist, for the watch is far to complex to have just happened and its purpose is great so it must have been designed and crafted to fulfill that purpose.  The apparent order and design manifested within the watch are key to his argument due to the concepts which they represent.  In the universe it is possible to see examples of both design and order; arguably reflected in the watch.

Further justification is provided as Paley as he uses this idea and applies it to the natural world.  He uses examples of the human eye and the wings of a bird to illustrate his point.  The apparent order and design present in these he argues cannot be purely down to ‘chance.’  This could potentially be applied on a larger scale to the world as a whole.

There are combined conclusions: that the watch has a maker, and therefore the world (being far more complex) has a maker.  This maker and designer is God.  Secondly, the being that made the world must be far more intelligent than the watchmaker as it is on a larger scale.  The world-maker must be extremely powerful and clever therefore must be God.  Paley was also able to preconceive critics of his argument and therefore devised a series of points which defended his argument.

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A major flaw in the argument could be that the world is not perfect and therefore how could it have been designed by the widely accepted ‘all-loving’ God?  This is explained by Paley as machines not all being perfect and failing to work sometimes.  The fact the world isn’t perfect doesn’t prove that there isn’t a designer.  This is a valid point however if you make this assumption that sometimes things go wrong then it would suggest that God is not ‘all-powerful’ or that he had, as some believe, ceased to exist after creating the world. 

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