The Teleological Argument Essay Example

the world has a purpose. Paley, (1802 ) 'Natural Theology' states probably the most famous and simple explanation of the teleological argument.

In this, Paley makes the analogy of the world with a watch. In short, this argument states, 'If we were walking along a deserted beach and came across a watch, we wouldn't just simply walk past and think, "there's a watch". We would begin to wonder where the watch came from; who put it there. As you examine the watch closely, you can see the intricacies and contrivances that suggest a designer.' In the same way, if you look at the world and how a complicated place it is, you simply cannot believe that everything happened simply by chance.There are two options that the passenger would think about in reasoning why the stones got there.

The first option is that the rocks must have simply rolled into that position. The other option would be that some other intelligent source position the rocks in such a way to give those on the train a message.' From relating this to the origin of the universe, there are two possibilities to how the world occurred. The first possibility is that the world occurred purely by chance. In comparing the message with the creation of the world, this would mean that to believe the message displayed on the mountain would be wrong because it is issued by no one and therefore has no purpose. If you believe that the message was not there from chance, but because someone actually arranged the rocks to display a message for a particular purpose.

Taylor believes that in the same way

we can view the constant arrangement of the universe as having a message and a purpose.In my opinion the argument with the most evidence is regularity. This states that there is so much order in the world that there must have been a designer who set this order. Richard Swinburne (1979), 'The Existence of God' says that 'constants that make up the laws of nature i.e.

gravity, the theory of electron and the initial expansion of the universe, all suggest that the world was specifically designed by a great Being.'A.E Taylor states 'nature reveals an anticipatory design that chance evolution cannot account for. For example, the body's need for the oxygen and the bodily membranes it anticipate us inhaling oxygen.

' He also describes how insects deposit their eggs in a place where the newly born will be able to find food relatively easily. Taylor stated that this is true throughout nature. He believes that advanced planning could not be accounted for by physical laws alone, since there are innumerable ways that electrons could run, but they do invariably move in accordance with advanced planning that sustains the organisms. Taylor also said, 'the mind or intelligence is the only known condition that can overcome the improbabilities against the developmental preservation of life.' Taylor believed that without advanced planning then life wouldn't be able to be sustain and the only way we can be given 'advanced planning' is by God.Richard Swinburne (1930) 'The Existence of God', placed forward an argument to defend the validity of the idea of regularity in the world He used the analogy of a person who had been kidnapped and locked in a

room with a card shuffling machine, shuffling ten packs of cards.

The kidnapper told his victim that if the machine did not draw all the ace of hearts, one from each pack, he would die. The machine begins to deal out cards and to the relief of the victim out comes ten aces of hearts.The victim tries to explain way this happen and the only possibility he thought was that the machine must have been rigged. The kidnapper casts doubt on this suggestion saying, 'It is hardly surprising that the machine draws only aces of hearts. You could not possibly see anything else for you would not be here to see anything at all if any other card had been draw.

' Swinburne believes that the victim reasoning is correct. He says, 'There is something extraordinary about ten hearts being drawn - the fact that this is a necessary condition of anything being seen is not the point.' Swinburne is trying to stress the point that just because we cannot see God it does not mean that he doesn't exist.Fred Hoyle, 'The Intelligent Universe' also supports Swinbourne view, 'A component has evidently been missing from cosmological studies. The origin of the Universe, like the solution of the rubik cube, requires intelligence.' Further on into the book he says, 'properties seem to run through the fabric of the natural world like a thread of happy accidents.

But there are so many of these odd coincidences essential to life that some explanation seems required to account for them.' Hoyle makes the point that the inter-relatedness of organisms and the earth is too much of a 'perfect coincidence' to

be believed that it wasn't designed by anyone, these odd coincidences need to be explained.