How successful is the teleological argument in proving the existence of God?

century. He argued that the world around us can be used as evidence to prove the

existence of God - through the natural order that occurs in our lives, bodies and minds.

He used the analogy of a watch to emphasis the complexity of our world. He explained

that if a primitive person who had never experienced modern technology came across a

watch, that person would automatically believe that the watch had been designed, its

complexity would lend itself to the assumption that a greater being had designed and

created it. This would be a watchmaker. Likewise this can be applied to humans, since

nature has the similarity of order and design we too must have been designed. In spite

of the fact that a human being is more complex than a watch, a designer is required in

order to allow all our organs and elements to work in sink. This designer is God. The

teleological argument works on the premise that 'chaos cannot create order'. Order is

the result of a reasoned and intelligent purpose - humans have a function to fulfil. The

world around us shows signs of order(weather patterns, tides), thus the world must have

an intelligent maker.

One strength of this argument is that the existence of God becomes necessary. Without

a designer, humans cannot be designed, and therefore cannot exist. It also appeals to

the human sense of logic, we would no more expect the components of a watch to by

'chance' fall into place and then function as an accurate timepiece; than we would

expect a pig to fly. It is therefore logical that someone planned how the human body

would work, how the tides would turn etc. Nevertheless there are also many

weaknesses: evolution - the process by humans evolved from a single-celled organism -

is more consistent with evidence. The existence of a designer is yet to be proved,

however the theory of evolution has much evidence to suggest it may have occurred.

Moreover, it has been suggested that our existence may have happened by 'chance'.

The probability of chance would indicate that at some point, the various elements that

make up this universe would fall together in the correct order.

There have been many criticisms to this argument, the most prominent by Hume who

debated that the jump from a watch to a human is to great. The basis of the teleological

argument was to link the universe to a human design. He however commented that the

similarities between a watch and the universe are not strong. The way the universe

functions is organic, but a watch is mechanistic - the analogy between the two cannot

sustain the conclusion of God's existence. Furthermore, he inferred that even if Gods

existence could be proved from this analogy - the characteristics of this entity would

ultimately be negative. The presence of suffering and pain in this world would conclude

that the all powerful God, was not in fact loving and caring but bad. However in

response Paley may have suggested that even an object as simple as a watch needed

to have a skilled and knowledgeable designer, the jump may be big, but nevertheless

humans being more complex have a greater need for a designer than a watch. The

designer has to be God, we cannot exist without 'its' design that allows us to function as

we do daily.

In conclusion it is clear that the existence of God is a highly debated issue. Paley stated

that like a watch, humans must have a designer. Hume, like with the ontological, and

cosmological has offered resistance claiming the jump between an organic and

mechanistic object is too great. Yet, it is the opinion of many philosophers that Paley

was a victim of his time. He complied this argument in the 18th century when a steam

train was the most sophisticated technology available - he grew up during the Industrial

Revolution where everything had a mechanical function. He had no concept of

machines being able to adapt and change in accordance to their circumstances so it

would be impossible for him to suggest it. His argument is therefore hindered by this.

However, despite this lack of knowledge the teleological argument is very successful at

proving the existence of God. It highlights that 'chance' played no part in the formulation

of our universe, but that we are in the hands of a creator - known as God.

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