Examine the design argument for the existence of God.
What are the strengths of the design argument?
Comment on some of the criticisms raised against the design argument.
A Design argument is “a posterior” as it is based on external evidence. The universe itself has order and regularity and the complexity of it shows evidence of the Design. That Designer has a Designer and so on till we get to the ‘original’ designer who is “God”.
The Teleological argument has two sides one of which is called the Analogical. These are arguments based on analogy that some objects are bound to be similar in some ways but different in others. For instance a sparrow is very different from a car, but both are similar in that they both move. The other type of argument is Abductive arguments; these begin with evidence that needs explaining and conclude with the best explanation for this evidence.
St. Thomas Aquinas came up with the Five ways to prove the existence of God. 1) Motion; 2) Causation; 3) Contingency; 4) Goodness; 5) Design. The First way is the argument from Motion; this means that there is something moving and that movement is caused by something that is making it moving. These movements however cannot be traced all the way back; therefore its first mover is God (the unmoved mover). The second way is the argument of Causation; this deals with the issues of existence. Aquinas argues that there must be an Uncaused Causer (God) who began the chain of existence. It explains that nothing can be the cause of itself, and we cannot create an endless string of objects causing other objects to exist. The third way is Contingency, a contingent being cannot exist without a necessary being, being able to create it. Aquinas believed that the existence of contingent beings would ultimately necessitate a being which must exist for all of the contingent beings to exist. The necessary being in this is God. The fourth way is Goodness; Thomas Aquinas formulated this idea from observation of interesting objects and qualities of things. For instance if we saw two paintings we could say that one is more beautiful that the other. So we could say that one has a higher degree of beauty than the other. For Aquinas this meant this could be used for any quality, such as beauty, knowledge, intelligence etc and there must be a perfect standard set for all these qualities. And that perfection is God. The fifth and final way is that of Design, St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of the observable universe and the order of nature. Aquinas states that common sense tells us the universe works in such a way, that one can conclude that was designed by an intelligent designer, God. In other words, all physical laws and the order of nature and life were designed and ordered by God, the intelligent designer.
