The Design Argument
Summary;
One of the original arguments for God’s existence is the Design Argument. Also known as the Teleological Argument - from the Greek word telos, which means ‘purpose’.
This argument argues, if we look around us at the natural world, we noticing how everything in it, is suited to the function it performs - everything bears evidence of having been designed for that pacific purpose.
For example: we examine the eye, we see how its minute parts all fit together, each part cleverly suited to what it was made for - seeing.
Supporters of the Design Argument, such as William Paley (1743–1805), claim that the complexity and efficiency of natural objects, such as the eye, is evidence that they must have been designed by a creator, “God”.
Just as by looking at a watch we can tell that it was designed by a watchmaker, so to, they argue, we can tell by looking at the eye that it was designed by some sort of Divine Watchmaker.
This, is an argument from an effect to its cause - we look at the effect (the eye or the watch), and from that we try to tell what caused it (a watchmaker or a Divine Watchmaker).
It relies on the idea that, a designed object like a watch is in some ways very similar to a natural object such as the eye. This sort of argument, based on a similarity between two things, is known as an “Argument from Analogy”. Arguments from analogy rely on the principle that, if two things are similar in some respects they will very likely be similar in others.
Those who accept the Design Argument, tell us that everywhere we look, particularly in the natural world, we can find confirmation of God’s existence. Because these things are far more ingeniously constructed than a watch, the Divine Watchmaker must have been correspondingly more intelligent than the human watchmaker. Indeed, the Divine Watchmaker must have been so powerful and so clever, that it makes sense to assume that it was God as traditionally understood by Theists.
However, there are strong arguments against the Design Argument which we will look at next.
