Paley's design argument

Explain Paley’s argument for the existence of God Paley was a Christian who observed science from his time (19th century) and developed Aquinas’ 5th way of intelligent design. Paley’s argument for the existence of God, or an intelligent designer stems from his teleological argument. This design argument aims to propose that a creator exists through a posteriori logic – the conclusions of his argument are inductive and synthetic due to the conclusion itself not necessarily true in relation to the premises, and would require testing. Paley’s argument is formed around his analogy of the watch maker, in which he sees complexity point to a purpose and then ultimately – a designer (design qua purpose). He also touches design qua regularity which is a concept that is commonly associated with St Thomas Aquinas and his 5th way, who also argued for God’s existence through the design argument. Paley’s analogy begins with him imagining that he is walking across a heath, he then stumbles across a rock. The presence of the rock does nothing to unsettle him as he does not question as to why the rock is where it is. When picking up the rock for a closer look – Paley suggests that nobody would ask ‘where has this come from?’ However, if one continued walking upon the heath and stumbled upon an old pocket watch, the reaction would be contrasting. Upon inspection the watch demonstrates a certain degree of complexity – the cogs, hands and markings indicate an intended purpose. The purpose is made clear through the intricacy of design, the watch is made of uniquely organised parts which would suggest that the purpose is to tell the time. Paley the points out that this is similar to the natural world as complexity is equally evident. He uses the example of the human eye – the intricate parts such as the iris, retina and cornea all come together to reach a purpose: vision. Similarly, trees also demonstrate this; they undergo complicated processes such as Photosynthesis which help them to achieve their purpose – to create food for themselves to stay and by doing so they produce Oxygen which is essential to life. This for Paley must point to an intelligent designer as complexities in man made things which point to a designer are evident, likewise, the complexity in the natural world is evident in the same way. Paley also suggested that even if the watch wasn’t created perfectly and had flaws, we could still infer that it has a designer as we could still deduce the complexities of design that indicate an intend purpose as it is different from a rock. Paley also touches on the concept of design qua regularity. He observes the natural order in the universe as something that points to the existence of God. The way in which the planets orbit the sun are fundamental to all life on Earth. This order is superior to anything man-made and therefore must suggest as superior designer – for Paley this is God. Furthermore, one could observe the order of the Sea and how the temperatures and depths allow certain life to exist. This complex and seemingly impossible order of the natural world can only be at the hands of God – who guides things into the way they are and uses order as a tool for things to achieve their purpose. Overall, Paley’s design argument uses empirical data around us in the form of the natural world in order to explain how God can exist. His comparison to man-made objects and natural organisms suggest that their shared intricacy in design can only suggest that a designer is the cause. For man-made things, for example a watch, the designer is a watch maker – therefore the natural world’s designer must be God as no other being could design in this way.