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William Paley's Argument From Design

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Argument from Design In the Argument from Design article by William Paley, he begins the argument by describing the mechanisms of a watch. These parts all combine in a certain way to make the watch work, or even exist. If these parts were not combined in the exact order, the watch would not do anything profound. Paley further describes how an observer could conceive the watch in the mind. He would then reflect, in some sense, how the watch was made independently. It was not brought into existence by other watches, but only by a creator combining different items together. There is the idea of metallic nature, but assuming a law also assumes a lawgiver. Therefore, there must be some sort of creator of the watch, even though the creator is unknown. This same concept could be applied to the universe, stating that there must be a creator that made these elaborate …show more content…

Even if people were unaware of the person who made the watch, ignorance is not an excuse for not giving credit to the artist. An objection to his argument is that some of the parts seem to have no function, so they were not designed. Paley states there may be a function of these parts that we are unable to see or understand. The design is evident from examining the rest of the watch. The machine does not have to be perfect in order to understand the artist’s design of the mechanism. For example, a blueprint of a machine can show you the idea and purpose of the final results, even though all the parts on the blueprint are not specifically described on why it exists. The design could not be a fault of chance due to its complexity. The observer of the watch cannot be driven out of his conclusion, even though he may know

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