William Paley was the man who first outlined the Analogical teleological argument. He compares the universe to a watch, saying that the intricate design and complex working of both the watch and the universe must mean that both have a designer.
Although this is a good point, is it fair to compare something as small as a watch, to something as complex and large as the universe. Also, we know the ways that a watch work. With the universe, we are unsure as to its attributes, we are not even sure if it is still growing or not. It is one large mystery, therefore the analogy is an unfair one.
Henry More came up with the same sort of argument as William Paley. He concluded that ‘ there is a divine intelligence that orders all things.’
If More’s statement is correct, then the universe would be perfect with no problems, however natural evil such as earthquakes still occur, therefore can the order of the universe be down to a divine intelligence, because if they were divine, they would be omnibenevolent, and things like this would not happen.
David Hume worked out several theories against the analogical teleological argument. He felt that if God had created the universe, you could not use the analogy of the watch because it was unfair to compare the work of God and humans. He stated that ‘the link between any human work and the work of nature is very small and weak’.
In his next point, Hume is saying that the world is not like a watch, because a watch is a mechanical object whereas the world is organic and develops through evolution. With this criticism, Hume concludes there does not have to be a God who designed the world.
David Hume then goes on to criticize the fact that if an analogy is going to be made then the two objects should be directly proportional to each other. Hume says that a contradiction is being made in terms of God in the Judeo-Christian understanding of God. The watch and the universe cannot be a fair analogy because Christians believe God is perfect and infinite, and we know the world is not this, therefore how can God be the designer?
In his final criticism Hume says the world is possibly the result of trial and error, and that there was no purpose for the making of the world. He says that the order in the universe could also be down to chance. He creates an analogy with this saying that chairs that are thrown around in a whirlwind could land in a perfect circle, as the order in the universe could have been created by chance.
Another philosopher, F. R. Tennant explains the universes existence in terms of probability. He came up with five points for the existence of God:
- The universe is intelligible and not chaotic, we are able to understand it.
- The most important thing about the evolutionary process is not the changes that take place, but the direction of these changes, towards an end goal or purpose.
- The absolute suitability of world to produce and sustain life (e.g. the position of our planet) seems to suggest there is a reason behind this.
- Human beings appreciate the arts, literature, culture, and beauty in the universe which doesn’t play any part in evolution, but is given to us by God.
- Humanity possesses an awareness of moral worth in which human beings as moral creatures and nature work together in peace and harmony, and not in opposition to each other. There seems to be a reason behind the harmony which is God.
After stating this argument, Tennant says the reason for the universe to exist is to support human life. This is ‘The anthropic principle’.
Another philosopher who sees God as a probability rather than an absolute is Richard Swinburne. He believes the order and scientific laws in the universe are more probably due to God than other causes. Also according to Swinburne, the universe exists to support human life. Humanity was the reason god created the universe.
Emmanuel Kant uses the argument that our mind possesses categories like space, time, God, eternal life, and the human soul in the phenomena part of our mind. These categories are separate from sense experience (a priori). He states that without these categories that the world would be unknowable due to peoples inability to identify order and relationships in the world. The result is that if this order is forced on us how do we know whether the real world is actually ordered.
Kant also points out that the teleological argument does not show us a Christian God, instead it shows us an world architect. The God behind the argument is not perfect, all powerful, or infinite, because if he was, he would have created a perfect world.
In conclusion, I feel that there is evidence of design in the universe, however it is not perfect design, due to faults such as the imperfect plates in the earth. I feel that the design in the universe is also something that may be able to be explained by coincidence. It may be possible that nothing created the universe, it just happened to have the right conditions and fall exactly into place, but as many of these theories as there are, we may never know the truth.