William Paley's Watchmaker Argument

His second argument for design he makes a comparison between machines and humans saying that both are equally complex and it was built with a purpose in mind. If changes are made to the watch such as taking away an internal component that makes it runs, or the minute or hour hand, its purpose would suddenly change and it would no longer be a watch.

God is the representation of standards that exemplify the means of reality and morality. The character of God is the foundation for truly understanding the absolute truth of our existence, the purpose of our being, and the morals we must follow. The before Christ era’s identity admitted that the earth was a constant struggle for existence. The struggles are shown through fatality, ailment, misery, and natural disasters, but do not take away from the purity of morality. Atheists’ thriving argument against the Christian faith is the evidence of evil and the suffering people must endure. “If God is all good and God is all powerful, why does He allow evil to exist?” Everything was perfect and worked in perfect harmony. Genesis 1 verse 31 says, “ Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day,”(Gen, 1:31). The animals did not eat each other. Nothing could come to wipe out creatures. Creation was designed perfect until Adam’s rebelled against God. His actions brought about evil, death, and destruction into the world. Death is not an enemy, but a part of creation passing. “Without a foundation of an initially perfect creation, there is no foundation upon which to say that these natural evils are bad and contrary to God’s original purpose”(Broocks). God ultimately dealt with immorality through the shedding Jesus’ blood on the cross and providing an eternity without

Firstly, Paley concentrates in the process leading to the creation of the watch. The process for creating a watch is very systematic and involves knowledge of mechanical engineering, a trade known to few men. Yet, it is not necessary to know the inner workings of the watch to use it on a daily basis: it is only necessary to understand the relationship between the position of the watch's hands to the sunrise and sunset of day. Paley concludes that even though he could not create a watch, some supreme being could create such watch. In other words, anything that shows evidence of creation has a creator and such creator exists or has existed at one point in time.

The argument for the existence of God has been a debate for many centuries. God, in terms of philosophy, must be a supernatural being that: is all-knowing, is all-powerful, and is all-good. Theists believe God exists based on these terms; atheists on the other hand don’t believe in God. Atheists believe that if there is evil present in the universe, then there is no possible way God can exist if he is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. Evil is defined in three different categories: human evil (evil we humans cause), natural evil (not in our control, of the Earth), and sufferings of the heart (not necessarily human/natural evil). The argument for the problem of evil is that God doesn’t exist because evil exists. In

If the watch could somehow reproduce, Paley still would not question that the watch still had originated from some intelligent designer. Like the watch, he thinks the universe also works for a purpose. Paley proscribes design as foresight, which is connected with purpose, however, the purpose is not the same as the function. It is said to be

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

The argument over the existence of God is one that has been argued for centuries. In Evil and Omnipotence1, J.L. Mackie argues that an all-good, all powerful God is logically conflicting with the existence of evil, as the very reality of evil is enough to provide an argument against the existence of God. A form of his argument can be stated as: 1. If God exists, God is omnipotent. 2.

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

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

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

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Teleological Argument Also known as the argument from design, the teleological argument simply states that a designer must exist considering that life in the universe can only occur when it meets the right conditions of “certain fundamental physical constants that are within a very narrow range”, according to InspiringPhilosophy. They also exhibit marks of pattern, consistency, unity and order in their design. In the Watchmaker Argument by William Paley, he stated that human artifacts are products of intelligent design. The universe looks like human artifacts.

After considering several assumptions that one would make after observing the watch, Paley comes to the conclusion that “[the observer] would also reflect, that the maker of every watch before him, was, in truth and reality, the maker of every watch produced from it” (Paley 2010: 19). This inscribes the idea of a master watchmaker. Paley later makes a comparison between the watch and the human eye, through which he explains his view that the original powerful master “humanmaker” must be God, and there is no reason to deny his existence,

Many sceptics of God and the Christian faith think that it’s hard to believe there is a God that is good in himself and can’t be anything but that. Not only that but many people also believe that he is not good, as so much punishment is shown in the Old Testament and the idea that God created Hell in the first place to punish people who sin. People argue that if God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and omnibenevolent he would not let natural disasters to happen, even though Christians say natural disasters happen to punish humankind for our sins.

Christians also believe in the fight between God and Satan, the fight between good and evil which exists in the world. Evidence of God is recorded in the Holy Bible, which is made of up of 66 books and letters that testify to Him, describe His character, commandments, and stories of His interaction with humans over history. Because God is the source of all purpose and meaning; the whole point of the Christian faith is to have a relationship with God. Christians affirm their faith in Him by praying to Him, reading the Bible (His Word), going to church to worship Him, living according to His commandments and spreading the gospel. God is the source of morality for Christians and is at the centre of their lives and decisions. “It is about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. God made man small and the universe big to say

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”.