What are the strengths of the design argument for the existence of God?

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What are the strengths of the design argument for the existence of God?

Philosophers have been trying to find evidence for or against the existence of a God, and one of the oldest arguments trying to prove/ disprove this is the design argument. The classical form of the argument looks at what we can see in the world. Philosophers look at the order and balance in the world and conclude that it must be designed. They also look at the complexity of animals and human beings.

Cicero is one of the oldest philosophers who used this argument to try and prove that there was a God. He believed that the fact we can predict future astronomical events from the movement of stars and planets meant that there must be design in the world. Aquinas also used the argument to try and show design in the world. In the fifth of his ‘five ways’ he argued that matter combines with other matter to make new things without any communication, and so the matter must have been designed to work that way, and a design needs a designer.

        Later on, in 1713 William Derham wrote books that argued that a world where everything is mutually dependant on everything else suggests design and a designer. It also suggests that because everything works together, it must all be designed by the same single designer.

        However, perhaps the most important form of the classic design argument is found in William Paley’s Natural theology. His argument can be split into two sections: the argument in regards to purpose and the argument in regards to regularity.

Paley used an analogy of a watch to show how the word seems to have purpose. He argued that if we found a watch, we would see its complexity and the way it’s put together and assume it had been designed for a purpose. The idea that it was designed implies a designer.

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“When we come to inspect the watch, we perceive that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose…the inference, we think, is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker”

To argue that the world must have been designed because of its regularity, Paley looked at astronomy, the planets and Newton’s laws. He believed all these laws could not have just come about by chance, but are proof of an intelligent mind who designed the word.

        The classical design argument has many main strengths, as it is a good A Posteriori argument, based on things ...

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