Is the activity of an intelligent designer the best explanation of our universe as a whole?

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Is the activity of an intelligent designer the best explanation of our universe as a whole?

I believe that the activity of an intelligent designer is the best explanation of our universe as a whole, as the inherently teleological features that exist within our universe cannot be explained purely by chance. As Aquinas said, all things “achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly…therefore, some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end..” (Aquinas, T. 2009).

Teleological arguments aim to establish the existence of God from order and design in the universe. The traditional argument is as follows:

  1. The universe exhibits apparent design.
  2. Similar effects have similar causes.
  3. The cause of apparent design in human artifacts is intelligent action.
  4. The cause of the apparent design in the universe is intelligent action. (Shalkowski, 2012)

To begin, in 1802 Paley put forward an analogy from Design qua Purpose, which looks at design in the universe relative to their purpose. He argued that if we came across a watch, we see that “its several parts are frames..put together for a purpose” (Paley, W. 2008), they did not just come to exist purely by chance. From this, we can conclude that just as the watch has a designer, the intricacies of the universe and the parts that seem to be fit for purpose would lead us to believe that there must be a designer. Paley also noticed how the eye had been designed with such precision for the purpose of allowing sight that it could not have been that way without design. Aquinas also argued from purpose, using the example of an arrow, stating,“..for an arrow to reach its destination it must be directed first of all by the archer..” (Wilkinson.M, 2009) arguing that everything in the universe needs to be directed in order to fulfill its purpose, indicating an intelligent designer directing the universe to sustain human life. Therefore, I believe that the activity of an intelligent is the best explanation because each aspect of creation has its own individual purpose and specific design, which leads me to believe that it is unreasonable to assume that everything came to exist the way it does randomly.

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In contrast, Hume, in the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779), uses the characters Philo and Cleanthes to argue that an analogy can only work if the two comparable things are somewhat similar. Furthermore, Hume argues that you cannot compare something earthly, such as a builder designing a house, and the universe as there is no concrete point of comparison. He then argued that it is just as plausible to say that the universe happened by chance as it is to say that it was designed, alluding to some pre-Darwinian ideas that natural selection could be the reason for the ...

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