Examine the design argument for the existence of God.

The first 200 words of this essay...

(a) Examine the design argument for the existence of God.

In this essay, I will be focusing on the different variations of the design argument, as expressed by Paley, as well as the version expressed by Hume, through Cleanthes, and its modern version in the form of the Anthropic Principle. I will describe the ideas of design 'qua regularity' and design 'qua order'; explaining what each means. I will also attempt to deconstruct the design argument and identify both its strengths and weaknesses, though this will form part (b) of my essay. I will then draw my own conclusion in response to the design argument.

The design argument is also known as the teleological argument.1 This argument attempts to prove the existence of God, using analogy. The teleological argument is that of an a posteriori2 nature, as its basic form comes from the idea that we can deduce knowledge from what we know or have sense of, in this case, the existence of the universe. Even before the Greek philosophers, people have presumed that the natural order of the universe - and the way in which it works, i.e.the changing season, the intricacy of an eyeball,