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The Teleological Argument
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Slide Set by Summer Pearce, updated more than 1 year ago
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Slide 1
The Teleological Argument
'Telos' means purpose, aim or goal. The Teleological Argument thus looks at the purpose and order of the universe that is concerned with why the world functions in such an orderly and intelligent manner.
It is an a posteriori argument that uses analogies to prove the existence of God.
This is an inductive argument, which means that it moves from specific experiences of the world to general conclusion about it. Premises give support to the conclusion, but do not necessitate it.
It is also known as the 'Design Argument.'
The TA fits in to Natural Theology, which is a branch of theology which argues from observation of the natural world for characteristics of God.
It is also synthetic and analogical.
It can be separated into two parts;
Design Qua [as relating to] Regularity (Aquinas)
Design Qua Purpose (Paley)
Caption: : The world contains order, regularity, purpose and beauty. By looking at something that possesses these qualities, we can infer that it was designed. The world is an object containing the above properties, so it makes sense to argue that it was designed.
Slide 2
Aquinas' 5th Way
Aquinas argued from a viewpoint of design qua regularity, and was heavily influenced by Aristotle, as he uses' Aristotle's concept of a first cause as God.
In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas presented five different arguments for the existence of God, known as Five Ways. The fifth and final Way of these arguments is an argument from the stance of design:
Things that lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, all act for an end. This is evident because they always, or nearly always act in the same way, in order to achieve the best result.
For example, trees, dogs and mountains all work towards an end. Trees give out oxygen, dogs seek out, eat food and breed, and mountains are complex ecosystems.
All things on the earth work together and separately for their own benefit and for the benefit of the planet as a whole, and follow natural and scientific laws.
Everything achieves its end, and this cannot be down to chance. The laws of science work in such a way that everything functions properly, so the universe must be designed.
Whatever lacks intelligence cannot move towards an end without being directed by something with knowledge and intelligence.
If you're a dog, a tree or a mountain, for example, you cannot deliberately choose to reach your end, as it takes something with intelligence to direct you to do so.
For example, an arrow is shot in a particular direction by an archer. The arrow could not have reached its intended target without the archer's direction.
Aquinas believed that there must be some intelligent being which directs natural things towards their ends through the establishment of natural laws, and this is the being we call God.
Aquina's argument is design qua regularity because it relies on the idea that things follow a set of laws to get their ends.
These laws are scientific, predictable and regular, a good example being the law of gravity.
Slide 3
In Summary...
Slide 4
Paley: The Watch and the Watchmaker
The design qua purpose argument explains the evidence for design in the universe around us.
Paley observed that everything in the universe seems to have been made to fulfil a purpose.
He used the analogy of a watch to explain his argument. Imagine if someone who has no concept of a watch finds one in the middle of a field. They would be able to see from the mechanical cogs and wheels that the watch is firstly very complex, but also made for the specific purpose of telling the time. (Note that in Paley's lifetime, a watch was the pinnacle of technology and many people would not be able to comprehend how it worked).
Paley compares a human eye to the analogy. Like only a watchmaker could replicate such a complex invention, the human eye is far too complex for us to replicate or even fully understand. Yet, it has the clear purpose of helping us to see. Thus, Paley argued that God must have designed the universe.
If it is unreasonable to think that a watch could be found in a heath without the design and arrangements of the watchmaker, then it must also be unreasonable to think that the universe exists without the power of a Heavenly designer.
Caption: : It is important to remember that it doesn't matter whether watches stop or people go blind. The point of the analogy is to show that everything has a design and purpose, and to demonstrate God's role as a designer. A designer for the universe is necessary. The world shows more evidence for design than a mere watch, as it is far more complex.
Slide 5
Paley's Argument in a Nutshell:
Paley's argument makes use of analogous logic, which says, "If the logic of the argument is true when applied to X, and if X is similar to Y, then one ought to conclude the same for Y as for X."Premise 1: A watch is very complex.Premise 2: A watch has the purpose of telling the time.Conclusion: It was designed.Premise 1: The universe is very complex.Premise 2: Everything in it has a purpose.Conclusion: It was designed.
Slide 6
The Difference Between Aquinas and Paley
Knowing the difference between Aquinas and Paley is particularly important for exam questions which ask you to talk about more than one teleological argument. Aquinas
Aquinas focusses on how one thing follows another, according to the laws of nature, leading to particular results or purpose.
Argument to design - objects seem to have purpose, and this purpose points to a designer.
Paley
Paley was not interested in one thing following another according to a specific law, but was more intrigued by how things fit together for a purpose. For example, he gave the example of the human eye, an intricate mechanism of the human body, as the eye is designed in such a way to create the ability to see.
Argument from design - from the order, purpose and regularity in the universe, there is a clear, apparent design. From this design, we can conclude there is a God.
Slide 7
Support from Greek Philosophy
Caption: : Aristotle argued that order and beauty were the handiwork of the Unmoved Mover. Aquinas' teleological argument was based on the writings of Aristotle, as he makes use of a the belief that Aristotle held, that everything is made for a purpose or telos. Whilst Aquinas doesn't offer specific examples, we can take Aristotle's example of ducks having webbed feet for the purpose of swimming faster and the concept of the Four Causes as part of his argument. However, unlike Aristotle, he did not think that this telos came about naturally, but that it must be the result of the guiding hand of an intelligent being.
Caption: : Plato suggested that a craftsman, the 'Demiurge' brought together pre-existing matter to form the universe.
Slide 8
Modern Forms of the TA
At the time, it had been assumed that Darwin had had the final word on the teleological argument, and that God's existence was a matter of faith rather than reason.
However, modern supporters of the argument have tried to embrace science in their theories, using it as evidence for design, rather than against it.
Modern forms of the argument are design qua regularity - they argue from a general pattern of order in the universe to conclude that there is a divine designer.
Modern forms of the argument are presented by:
F.R. Tennant - The Aesthetic and Anthropic Principles
John Polkinghorne
George Ward
Slide 9
F.R. Tennant's Principles
Caption: : The Aesthetic Principle: The world is needlessly beautiful. Random chance would not have resulted in such beauty. The beauty of the world shows the 'flourish' of the designer.
Caption: :
Slide 10
The Anthropic Principle
The Anthropic Principle was put forward by some 20th Century scientists, stating that the universe 'knew we were coming,' so it has been designed with us in mind.
Amongst them was F. R. Tennant, who argued that conditions found in the universe make it certain that carbon-based life forms would be a product of it, and owing to the tiny probability of it being this way, we ought to conclude that there is a designer.
Following inductive logic, it is more likely that the universe was designed, rather than it came about by chance.
Slide 11
The Probability of Design
There have been developments towards the focus on the inductive nature of the design argument. Given the odds that there is any life at all, we ought to conclude that there is a consciousness behind it.
This has been referred to as 'The Goldilocks Zone' or more often, 'The Fine-Tuning Argument.'
Proponents of this argument typically argue that taken together, the various fine-tuned balances appear quite improbable, and hint strongly at something designed, rather than accidental.
Supporters of the argument suggest that the odds of there not being conscious life is huge in comparison to the slim chance of conscious life existing.
John Polkinghorne, a scientist and Church of England minister, pointed out in 1985 the expansive and contractive energy forces in the expanding cosmos, according to a then-currently accepted theory, depends upon an extremely fine balance of the total energy, the odds of which are 10^60@:1. This is the equivalent of the likelihood of taking aim from earth and hitting an inch-wide target at the farthest reaches of the observable universe.
George Wald also wrote in 1985, that in the same context, the conditions for something as fundamental as the atom would depend on a balance of forces to within 1 in 10^85.
Fred Hoyle (astrophysicist) - "There are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question."
Fred Hoyle - "The chances of a cell emerging by chance is like a tornado ripping through a scrapyard and creating a plane."
Tony Rothman (physicist) - "When confronted with the order and beauty of the universe and the strange coincidences of nature, it's very tempting to take the leap of faith from science into religion. I am sure many physicists want to. I only wish they would admit it."
Slide 12
The Goldilocks Theorem
The Earth has been compared to baby bear's porridge, chair and bed in the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story.
It has been claimed that the world is too perfectly designed to be anything else but a product of an intelligent designer.
For example, the Earth has a breathable atmosphere, adequate water supply, sufficient gravitational pull and is the right distance away from the Sun to be warm, but not start to burn alive. Thus, our world is 'just right' for us.
All these things cannot be created by chance in order to sustain life, as the chances of random processes like the Big Bang creating a perfect environment for living things is very slim.
Slide 14
What does this all mean?
Caption: : Cicero asked, "What could be more clear or obvious when we look up to the sky and contemplate the heavens, than that there is some divinity or superior intelligence?" Do you agree?
Whilst modern forms of the design argument do prove that scientific evidence points towards a designer, there is still confusion surrounding Biblical creation stories and evolution.
The accounts in Genesis 1 and 2 don't fit with the process of evolution, in the amount of time they take or how things were created. There are three possibilities; the Bible is wrong, Darwin is wrong, or the Bible is symbolic in it's description of creation.
Paul Davies wrote in his book The Goldilocks Enigma, about the fine-tuning debate in detail and listed all the possibilities that might be true of the universe;
The absurd universe - Our universe just happens to be the way it is.
The unique universe - There is a deep underlying unity in physics which necessitates the universe being the way it is. Some Theory of Everything will explain why the various features of the universe must have exactly the values we see.
The multiverse - Multiple universes exist, having all the possible combinations of characteristics, and we inevitably find ourselves within a universe that allows us to exist.
Creationism - A creator designed the universe with the purpose of supporting complexity and the emergence of intelligence.
The self-explaining universe - A closed explanatory or causal loop: 'Perhaps only universes with a capacity for consciousness can exist." This is Wheeler's Participatory Anthropic Principle (PAP).
The fake universe - We live inside a virtual reality simulation.
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