Examine the design argument for the existence of God

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Toby Elliott                07/05/2007

Examine the design argument for the existence of God:

The design argument is also know as the teleological argument. This argument attempts to prove the existence of God from the evidence of design in nature as the designer, by using analogy. The teleological argument is that of an ‘a posteriori’ nature as its basic forms comes from the idea that we can deduce knowledge from what we know or have sense of, i.e. the evidence of order ,regularity and purpose in the universe. Throughout history there have been people that have presumed that the natural order of the universe and the way in which It works e.g. the changing seasons the complexes of humans brains DNA etc the list is endless. Serves as evidence of a designer.

The design argument has been expressed in two ways design qua regularity. Design regularity  arguments looks at design in relation to the order and regularity of the universe. For example the rotation of the planet that cannot just be down to random chance. St Thomas Aquinas argues from design qua regularity in the fifth of his fives ways, for the existence of god set out in Aqyinas argues that ‘natural bodies’ seem to behave in a and concludes that, “there must be some intelligent being ho directs  all things to the purpose for which they exist. This being call God.”

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Willam Palely looked at design qua regularly and used evidence such as Newton’s laws of motion to further prove design in the universe. The universal laws such as gravity and the rotation of the planets were used by palely to prove that the universe have not just been an accident they proved the universe had design order and regularity.

The second version of the design argument is design qua purpose. William Paley puts forward the most famous idea of the design argument using the analogy of the watch and the stone

“ …incrossing a heath, suppose I ...

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