Evaluate the weaknesses of design arguments for the existence of God

AS and A Level Religious Studies & Philosophy

Kerrie Freeman

Evaluate the weaknesses of design arguments for the existence of God (9)

The design argument is an a posteriori argument for the existence of god based on apparent design and purpose in the universe. The argument is based on an interpretation of teleology where in purpose and intelligent design appears to exist in nature beyond the scope of any such human activities. The teleological argument suggests that, given the premise, the existence of a designer can be assumed, typically presented as God.

It is an inductive argument which means that we learn something new and it goes beyond the truth of the premise which may or may not be a good thing. The fall of it going beyond the truth of the premise is that we can never fully trust the conclusion which may mean that we cannot fully justify and explain the argument.

The design argument is also a posteriori argument which means everything is based on experience of the world. This means that we can find evidence in the world to support the premises of the conclusion. Although, Kant emphasised that the design argument depended on the assumption that there is design in the universe. The design must be the independent work of a designer who imposed order and purpose in the universe. The argument is based on the assumption that there is irregularity, order and purpose in the universe. Kant argued that the universe may be in chaos but, because of ...

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Even though the design argument is a feature of the natural theology it may be able to convince those who do not believe religion. The reason is that the argument doesn’t use any holy scriptures but this could be disbelieved as evidence of the natural world cannot be used as proof also.

William Paley, who was Archdeacon of Carlisle, used an analogy of someone coming across a watch on a heath. In his analogy he said, if that person was to look down and see a watch would they question the designer of that watch? They would notice how the watch worked in order to tell the time, and would conclude that there must have been an intelligent designer to have made this watch. He compared the watch to a human being and noticed how it worked so intrinsically. Paley argued that we do not have to have ever seen a watch being made in order to realise that there must have been a maker. In addition, the mechanisms of the universe could be compared to the mechanism of a manufactured object such as a watch.

However, this analogy offers problems in itself. For instance, what if the watchmaker was malevolent, a female or a group of makers and not just one person? Mill questioned this and asked to why would God create a world which contains such evil and unhappiness? Why would he want to hurt his own creations? However, we may be able to say that a watchmaker needs intelligence and they may be alike in some respect.

David Hume criticised Paley’s analogy and he clearly showed that if one takes the analogy of a machine being like the world the argument fails. If someone comes across a machine they assume that it has more than one designer, therefore there should be more than one God.

Charles Darwin is the proponent of the theory of Natural Selection. Darwinism thus postulates that the fittest and healthiest members of society survive and their characteristics are passed down giving the appearance of design in the universe

Richard Dawkins, a biological materialist and reductionists, supported Darwin by arguing that random mutations in DNA alone give rise to variation in the world and the illusion of design. For Dawkins, life amounts to nothing more than bytes of digital information contained in the quaternary code, DNA.

Darwinism presents a challenge to arguments from design, because it suggests an alternative reason why creatures seem to be so well suited for their purposes.

When evaluating the weaknesses of design arguments for the existence of god,

Teacher Reviews

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

David Moss

31st of Mar 2012

3/5 The essay makes a number of good points and makes a number of decent attempts to evaluate throughout. This is the key to getting marks for this sort of essay, which explicitly asks for evaluation. The response is rather brief though. More arguments could be discussed, both to display knowledge and to give the students something more to talk about in their evaluation. The essay would be improved by making a clear attempt to weigh up the pros and cons of the arguments discussed and to attempt an overall conclusion. This is suggested by the essay question. As the question specifically asks one to evaluate the weaknesses of the design argument, the introductory material and explanations are irrelevant, further limiting the useful content of the essay. Focus on this would be required to get a top mark in the essay. It would also be ideal to offer an original argument as to whether the weaknesses are fatal overall or not to the argument.

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