Paley's Arguments On The Existence Of God

and to do it to the best of their abilities. This also leads on to the

Although atheists believe that, no one can disprove that God exists. The most effective method to debate the issue is to look at the evidence. Most cosmologists agree that the universe began about 13.7 billion years ago in an event known as, “The Big Bang”. Professor Hawking says, “Because there’s a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing spontaneously. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something instead of nothing; why the universe exists; why we exist. It’s necessary to invoke God to set the universe in motion,”(Hawking). Hawking says, “the universe exists because the universe needed to exist”(Hawking). Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize winning physicist explains how the big bang looked. Steven being an atheist enlightens us with his account. Steven says, “In the beginning there was an explosion, and in three minutes, 98% of the matter there is or ever will be was produced. We had a universe,”(Weinberg). Experts in the span of 2,500 years agreed with Aristotle’s idea on the world developing from a steady-state universe.” “Being in a steady-state universe existing with no beginning and no end. The Bible disagrees with their theory,”(Aristotle). Belgian astronomer of the 1920s, Georges Lemaitre, a theist, said, “that the entire universe, jumping into existence in a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, out of nothingness in an unimaginably intense flash of light, is how

William Paley's argument for the existence of God is an important aspect of the Design argument, which argues that the universe is being directed towards an end purpose due to the a posteriori (subject to experience) evidence of an intelligent designer, who is God. This is because it is perhaps arguably the most famous version, and the theory which modern-day theories for the Design argument are built upon.

The question that was posed in this week’s discussion had me pondering not only what I felt about the statement, “God is good,” but also what the book referred to as a prerequisite that adhered to the statement. First I would like to take a look at what the author of the book refers to as “good” when referencing God. J.L. Mackie’s principle states, “It follows that a good omnipotent thing eliminates evil completely, and then the propositions that a good omnipotent things exists, and that evil exists, are incompatible” (Davies 209). This statement made by Mackie would suggest that if there was a good omnipotent “thing,” evil would not exist. Mackie believes that since evil exists, then there must not be a God. Mackie also points out a contradiction

The traditional God in the Judeo-Christian tradition is known to be as an “Omni-God” possessing particular divine attributes such as omniscient, which means he knows everything he is also omnipotent, or all powerful. God has also been said to be also he is omnipresence which means he exists in all places and present everywhere, however there are many philosophical arguments on whether if any of that is actually true or if there is a God at all. This paper argues that it is not possible to know whether the traditional God exists or not. While there have been philosophers such as Aquinas, Anselm, Paley and Kierkegaard who are for god and present strong argument, likewise philosopher like Nietzsche and arguments like the problem of evil both make valid point on why God isn’t real.

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

A design argument is more commonly know as a Teleological one, which is an argument for the existence of a creator or god “based on perceived evidence of deliberate design in the natural or physical world”.The argument has been discussed all the way back to the time of Socrates and Plato. In my essay I will be evaluating one argument put forward by a famous philosopher, in this case William Paley, an English clergyman born in 1743, in which he tries to show similarities in the design of nature and the design of man made artefacts.

This is the second argument about God’s existence. Perhaps the most popular variant owed to this this argument is William Paley’s argument concerning the watch. Essentially, this argument states that after observing a watch, together with its intricate parts, which function together as a unit in an accurate manner to keep time, anybody must realize that such piece of machinery has its creator, as it is too complicated to have easily come into presence through other means, like evolution (Ratzsch, 2005). The following is a skeleton of this argument:

Ethical theories that define goodness in term of divine command are considered live options among an array of ethical theories. Debates rage over divine causality, the extent of God’s providence, and the reality of human free choice. The problem of evil has also been taken up anew for fresh discussions both by those who see it as arguing against the existence of God and by those who wish to defend theism against the reality of evil.

Natural theology refers to truths known about God when reflecting on nature, environment and living organisms in the world. William Paley was born in seventeen forty-three, and he got ordained as an Anglican priest in the year seventeen sixty-seven-a year later he became a professor of theology at Cambridge University. He believes that the design of creation in living things stands as a prime indicator of the existence of God in our society. Paley argues that in the perfection or imperfection of nature and machines are attributed to a creator and the capability to reproduce is as a result of a supreme being. In the case study that illustrates his belief he asks the reader to imagine a scenario; when crossing a heath, you come across a watch on the ground. To this effect one observes that all its parts have been designed to achieve the desired purpose of measuring time; an intellect would not think its existence is by chance but the work of a talented artisan.

A watch embodies all appearances of intelligent design. It has purpose, a certain disposition or instruction. It is a complex object; all parts are needed for it to fulfil its purpose and we could not substitute any of these parts. It is made of a specific set of materials; we do not find smelted gold or blown glass naturally occurring in nature. The watch also has a regular motion. All these properties and dispositions a watch personifies show it is a creation and not just a naturally occurring object. The same is said about the human eye through analogy. This is the reason William Paley chose to use the watch as well as the human eye to highlight his argument for design in his work Natural Theology, (1802). The teleological argument he puts forth is one we can know empirically through observation. It is not the purpose of the argument to fully convince us that the argument is correct in every way. The purpose is to offer the audience a logical and suggestible conclusion. However the argument

Does the First Cause Argument show that God exists? The First Cause Argument (or "cosmological argument") as conjured by Thomas Aquinas (1225- 7 March 1274), an Italian philosopher gives reasoning for the existence of a higher entity called God. Aquinas's argument brings forth the idea that the existence of the universe was orchestrated by a higher entity which in turn shows the existence of the higher entity. This is all based on the premise that everything has a beginning therefore the universe must have had a beginning.

The existence of God is a on going phenomenon for our universe. As time begins to evolve the existence of God is constantly being challenged from our society. From a philosophers standpoint this argument can be fought at so many perspectives. Whether it comes from Darwinism, to Cosmological, or Ontological arguments the existence of God can only be decided by free will. As technology improves more questions are raised for the existence of God, but when broken down into simpler of terms the existents of God is evident.

Aquinas says we experience causality Nothing is the cause of itself causes are other than their effects. There cannot be an infinite regress of caused causes. If there were an infinite regress, the effects we experience here & now would not exist. Therefore, there must be some first cause and this we call "God." There is also the law of argument by design, we naturally work towards a goal, we also lack the knowing of the outcome, but we reach our goal by being pointed in the direction, therefore there is an intelligent being pointing us in the direction and that would be proof of “God”.

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.