Explain Paley's Argument for the Existence of God

In his third argument about arguing from mind to design, he states that using the mind as a representation is only a small part of universe (Paley, 1802, 197). For example, a watch must have had a watchmaker because such a complex idea and mechanism could not have just come from nature. A creator with prior knowledge of the watch must have created it. Therefore, the universe must have had a creator. This creator was God.

The famous William Paley has a different ontological argument within his text Natural Theology. The title of the reading gives insight to the theory, which focuses on something called natural design. The writing is based on an intricate and extensive analogy between the man made and the natural. For instance, Paley describes a man made watch in great detail. This intense detail sets the notion that each piece must have been put in place by someone, whom we can infer is a watchmaker. He then compares this to the intricacy of nature, which must have been made by a supreme diety. Such complexity could not have come about by chance. Only the most

“The Universe Doesn’t Care About Your ‘Purpose’." The New York Times, 31 July. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/opinion/the-universe-doesnt-care-about-your-purpose.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fthe-stone&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=search&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection. Accessed 28 February 2018.

Paley’s made his argument using an analogy to prove the existence of god, using a watchmaker analogy and to image if we found a watch on the ground and could it have been possible for the watch to simply appear randomly, spontaneously on its own. Paley was arguing that the teleology demonstrated by a watch would conclude that it was designed by an intelligent creator with a particular end in mind. While Aquinas has a design argument of his own ,the Teleological argument focuses on the condition that allows for life in the universe to only occur when certain fundamental physical constants are within a very narrow range if one of many fundamental constant are off slightly, then the universe would be unfit for the development of matter and life. Since these things are so finely tuned it appears an intelligent designer may have been involved in making sure these things happened so life could occur that designer Aquinas believes to be

it. We have a purpose for our lives. By God creating man and woman in the Garden of Eden

William Paley’s teleological argument (also known as the argument from design) is an attempt to prove the existence of god. This argument succeeds in proving that while existence was created by an aggregation of forces, to define these forces, as a conscious, rational, and ultimately godlike is dubious. Although the conclusions are valid, the argument makes several logical errors. The teleological argument relies on inductive reasoning, rendering the argument itself valid, but unsound. The argument fails to apply its own line of reasoning to itself, resulting in infinite regression. Beyond the scope of its logical flaws, the arguments content lacks accurate comparisons. The argument hinges on a

It is obvious that both are not there by chance. Another analogy for this is the eye is designed so well for the purpose of seeing. A designer gave each part of the universe a special purpose. Paley makes the inductive leap to say that this designer is God.

In the Theological Argument William Paley is trying to prove that god exists. He uses the analogy of creation and design. He believes that because a watch has a maker/creator so does the universe. Paley then goes into depth of how complicated, precise and intelligent a human has to be in order to create the watch. He then explains all the steps and components it takes in order for the watch to be able to function. By doing so he is showing how precise the creator had to be in order for the watch to work and he uses this analogy for the universe. For instance, having the sun exactly where it is at the perfect distance in order to support human life on Earth. As the argument continues Paley starts to give reasons as to why people might consider

The Argument from Design In William Paley’s “Argument from Design” he seeks to prove God’s existence by comparing the world and universe we live in to a machine, specifically a watch. The goal of the design argument is to prove the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, and wholly good God through the watch analogy. The analogy tries to say that if we look at the creation of the universe like that of a watch, we can infer that it has a purpose and a designer. While this seems to be valid, there are some flaws in Paley’s argument that I will point out.

William Paley’s Theological argument for the existence of God raises quite a few questions from the offset of Paley’s book Natural Theology. The first piece of evidence that he uses to argue his point is his analogy of him stumbling upon a stone in a field and wondering how it came to be there , Paley states that he could argue that it would be acceptable to believe that the stone had stayed there forever due to the fact he has no prior knowledge of how it came to be there. Paley shows us that we as humans take a lot of things for granted in our lives due to the fact that we have

Sir Thomas Aquinas and William Paley present two arguments for the existence of God. Aquinas defines God as omnibenevolent (all good) for his argument, and he continues in “The Five Ways” to present arguments to prove God’s existence (Rosen et al. 11). Paley, on the other hand, primarily defines God as a designer worthy of our admiration for his work (Rosen et al. 27). During class discussion, defining God involved three major qualities: omnipotence, omniscience, and omnibenevolence. Both Aquinas and Paley are attempting to prove the existence of the (Christian) God associated with these qualities. Although Aquinas’s “Cosmological Argument” and Paley’s “Argument from Design” have different premises, both have a similar logical gap in their

Perhaps one of the most influential design argument for the existence of God was postulated by Christian William Paley. Paley argued in his Natural Theology, that the complex and precise design of organisms and their parts could be accounted for only as the “deed” of an Intelligent and Omnipotent “Designer.” The design of organisms, he claimed, was undeniable evidence of the existence of a “higher” being. Around the same time the stages were being set for the rise of Copernican and Darwinian revolutions for the one Scientific Revolution. They jointly ushered in the beginning of science in the 19th century, through the explanation of natural laws.

Since the universe is in perfect harmony, there can be no such thing as any evil perpetrated by the cosmos. Indeed, all of the universe’s actions are for the benefit of all. The actions of humans on Earth, for the most part, are for self-aggrandizement rather than the greater good.”

Firstly, we shall focus on the Design (or to use its philosophically technical term, the teleological argument). There are numerous variants of the Design argument, however we shall be focusing on Paley’s version (reference 1) of this theory. Paley’s version of the Design argument is based upon the idea that by looking around at certain features of the world (for example an inanimate object like a rock or say a living creature like dolphin or a person like myself) and theorising that they are too complex and intricate to randomly just manifest. They must have been created by a higher, more intelligent power and thus, if this is accepted as being so, then this proves beyond doubt that God exists.

Presumably, since the beginning of time, mankind has tirelessly sought out answers toward a greater, predetermined and/or significant purpose of existence. Though the question is still unanswered, the desire to ask remains—what is the point? The contradiction between searching for order, reason and/or existential purpose and the inability to find any type of purpose in an essentially meaningless and indifferent universe is what French philosopher, Albert Camus, considered “Absurd.” Mankind’s hopeful searching for concrete meanings is met with the discouraging and disheartening realization that there are no true meanings. For many of us, the idea of the universe was created with no purpose or that any individual effort made toward changing the universe will be met by a forgetful universe that will continue to be indifferent toward our existence is a despairing concept.