Define Design also known as Greek word Meaning
- Slides: 10
Define: • • • Design also known as? ? Greek word? Meaning? Theistic argument Analogical Argument A posteriori, inductive argument. • A Summa Theologiae • Which 5 ways? ? What happened in the first 3?
Starter: Key Cards • Key Words • Quotations - 2
William Paley (17431805) • Most popular exponent. • 19 th century Philosopher and Theologian. • In Natural Theology (1802) most famous exposition. • Paley used the famous ‘watch analogy’ (an ‘old fashioned’ mechanical watch, with a tremendously complex movement of cogs, wheels and springs, rather than the modern quartz watch):
In the classic form of this analogical argument Paley asks us to imagine we are crossing a heath, and find a stone. I would not be puzzled by its presence. Imagine you found a watch there instead. You would ask: ‘Who do you think made this? ’ To say ‘nobody’ is absurd. Why? Watch shows evidence of DESIGN and PURPOSE – someone had to be responsible for it’s existence.
• It is not reasonable to assume that a watch found on a heath came about without the agency of a watchmaker. • Watch manifests order and interaction of parts - purpose. Complexity entails a designer. • By analogy - it is equally unreasonable to suggest that the universe, with all its intricacies, came about without a designer (sciences his day to try to prove this). • You could equally well apply the argument to other comparisons between nature and manufactured items.
Consider: • Anatomy of human eye, when compared to a sophisticated auto focus camera • The heart, and doctors attempts to make an artificial heart to treat patients with heart disease. • Ozone Layer/global warming. • The basis of the argument is that there is evidence of design in the universe around us. Everything appears to have been designed to fulfil some function. • The way that each aspect of the Natural world appears to fulfil its purpose well is further evidence of design. * purpose, design – not happened by chance. “An appeal to chance is really a way of saying that we do not know what caused something to occur”.
• According to Paley this designer is God. Read, highlight and make notes on William Paley’s version of the design argument. Complete at home …… Give out key word sheets…. . Learn for test.
• According to Paley this designer is God. Tasks: 1. Explain, in your own words, how Paley used the design and purpose of a watch to try to prove the existence of God. 2. Do you agree with Paley? Give reasons for your answer. Think about: Is Paley right to compare a watch to the universe? 3. Has Paley made it clear what the purpose of the universe is? OR notes pg. 15 -17 Tyler
Design qua Regularity: the argument that the Universe appears to behave according to some order or rule • Paley goes on to argue that there is further evidence for a Creator God in the regularity of the Universe. • Astronomical discoveries , and Isaac Newton’s Laws of motion, demonstrated a controlled rather than random, principle at work in the Universe. • In particular, Paley considered the motion of the planets in the solar system • The relationship between the planets, and the effect of gravity between them, could not have come about without a designing principle at work. This principle is God.
