Aquinas argues that the general order and purpose of the universe is proof of a designer behind it. The apparent purposeful behaviour of inanimate and non-rational things in the universe can only be explained by God. For example, every year groups of grey whales migrate from their sub-arctic feeding grounds off the Alaskan coast to their Mexican breeding grounds. This is a journey of 20, 000 kilometres which takes up to three months. These behaviour patterns rarely change, and their end result is beneficial to the whales, so there is purpose in them. The whales are non-rational creatures but their behaviour is nevertheless working towards some purpose or goal. According to Aquinas, something must be directing them to do this, he believed it is God. ‘We see that things which lack knowledge such as natural bodies act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always in the same way so as to obtain the result.’ Another example for Aquinas’s theory would be an archer and an arrow. Without the guidance from the archer, the arrow would not fly across the air. This is because the arrow is a non-rational and inanimate thing. It needs this guidance to reach its final goal and fulfil its purpose. Aquinas based his argument on four premises; he said there is beneficial order in the universe, where things in the universe are working towards their end or purpose. This could not have happened by chance. Many objects in the universe do not have the intelligence to work towards an end or purpose, therefore they must be directed by someone that does have intelligence and God exists as the explanation of beneficial order, the universe cannot be explained because the universe itself is not self-explanatory and does not exhibit intelligence in its own right.
One of Swinburne’s arguments which he looked at was the argument of probability. He suggests that the evidence of design and order in the universe increases the probability that God exists. He based his argument on the amount of order which is displayed in the universe. When Swinburne explains regularities, he sees it in terms of other regularities which would lead to an infinite chain that offers no explanation. We can accept them as unexplainable and the regular irregularities of the universe can be explained through science. ‘All the regularity in nature would be due to the action of a postulated God, making mature, as it were, performing a great symphony in the way in which a man produces from his throat a regular series of notes’. Swinburne came up with seven observations which he believes increases the probability of the universe being designed. These are the very existence of the universe, the fact the universe is ordered, the existence of consciousness, human opportunities to good, the pattern of history, the evidence of miracles and religious experiences.
The Providential Universe is where Swinburne argues that God is the best explanation for the design that is evident in the universe and points not only to order and purpose but also to providential nature of the universe, where everything created is necessary for survival, and natural laws function within the universe making it a place where humans can develop. He believes that the universe is where man was designed to occupy the highest position and that natural laws work in the universe to make it a place where man can meaningfully add to its development and maintenance. This kind of universe, the kind that God created was not just made for humans but for animals as well. This argument links in with his theory on probability as there is a probability that God exists, which is considered greater than the probability that he does not exist. Such a God does not come under the control of the laws of nature so he must be the only designing God because other gods would just be unnecessary. A,E Taylor put together a classical form of the argument from providence, his argument includes that mind or intelligence (God) is needed to explain this improbable state of affairs. Human beings plan ahead, nature also gives evidence of similar planning. The mind cannot be explained by evolution since evolution itself requires a mind which imposed it, humans cannot be explained by evolution since humans do not just adapt to the environment, but they transform it to suit them.
Another part of the argument is the aesthetic form, which observes the universe has a natural beauty that goes beyond what is necessary to live. This further supports that it is a creation of God. Some of the beauty is part of the order; our appreciation of it not only reflects our attraction to things that are aesthetically pleasing, improving our dislike of chaos. Beauty is also found in things that are not part of the naturally world but as humans we still appreciate them even though they play no part in the survival of humans. These things consist of music and art, as well as other things, which contribute to the way we view the world as a beneficial place to live which is appealing and attractive, even though we would be able to survive without them. Tennant found ‘Nature is not just beautiful in places; it is saturated with beauty. Out scientific knowledge brings us no nearer to understanding the beauty of music. From an intelligent point of view, beauty seems to be superfluous and to have little survival value’. Tennant had five key observations with the view that the world was also to be considered superior to others in the fact it catered for moral and spiritual dimensions. The universe is intelligible and not chaotic; it is sustainable for human life. Human life possesses an awareness of moral worth and works in harmony with nature to keep the beauty. Tennant offers a different argument where he suggests that once the aspects of probability have been identified the evidence of a divine designer becomes more probable then not.
After his aesthetic argument, Tennant extended the argument to include theories and observations that came from evolution to form the Anthropic Principle. It says it gives reason and purpose for the universe in the support of human life ‘As we look out into the universe, and identify many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together for our benefit, it almost seems as if the universe must in some sense know that we were coming’. There is speculation about the improbability of achieving conditions in which life does exist, and then indicating a fine-tuned universe purposely made so human life is possible. The Anthropic Principle shows that the design argument does not reject the principle of evolution in order to create a designing God. ‘The world is compatible to a single throw of the dice and common sense is not foolish in suspecting the dice to have been loaded’. This suggests scientific explanations of the universe are similar to the design argument because evolution can be seen to be the means which the designer has brought the universe to this point. . It shows the universe is beyond chance, the odds of it coming about by chance are so high that it is rendered virtually impossible. Swinburne supports this with ‘the very success of the science in showing us how deeply ordered the natural world is, provides strong grounds for believing that there is an even deeper cause of that order’.