The Teleological Argument

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The Teleological Argument

• Weber State University
• Spring 2007
• PHIL 1000

2
What is the foundation of the arguments for Gods
existence?

• A priori arguments based on reason alone.
• A posteriori arguments that depend on premises
  that can only be known on the basis of experience.

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The Teleological Argument

• Telos end or goal

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Two important questions

• How do we distinguish the mere appearance of
  design from genuine design?
• Can the order in nature be explained by any
  hypothesis other than that of an intelligent
  cause that is above nature but operates in it?

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Genuine Design or Mere Appearance of Design?

• Is this representative of genuine design or the
  mere appearance of design?

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Ciceros Argument

• The operation of the universe must be somehow
  controlled or caused by intelligence. (premise)
• The intelligent designer must be God. (1)
• Cicero writes, 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?

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Two senses of design

• A sense of regularity.
• Succession of regular marks on a paper, a musical
  score, the arrangement of flowers in a garden.
• A sense of purpose.
• Somethings being designed because it had parts
  put together for some end or other, e.g.,
  television or radio.

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Paleys Argument

• The universe exhibits apparent design, that is,
  the ordering of complex means to the fulfillment
  of intelligible goals, ends, or purposes.
  (premise)
• We have usually found a purposive, intelligent
  will to be the cause of such design. (premise)
• Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that the
  universe was caused by a purposive, intelligent
  will. (1,2)

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The Power of Analogy

• Analogy Just as the watch I find on the beach
  must have had a designer, so too must the
  universe have had a designer.
• We have to be reasonably confident that
  meaningful similarities exist between the world
  we live in and the universe.

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Probability

• The argument is abductive it argues to the best
  explanation.

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Swinburnes Argument

• That there is temporal order is very evident.
  (premise)
• Regularities of succession are all pervasive.
  E.g., the laws of how things in the world behave
  are set out masterfully in physics, chemistry,
  and biology textbooks. (premise)
• Some explanation of the order is called for.
  (1,2)
• The temporal order of the universe is explicable
  in terms of something analogous to human
  intelligence. (premise)
• The explanation is either scientific or personal.
  (premise)
• Scientific explanation describes particular
  phenomena brought about by prior phenomena in
  accord with scientific laws. (premise)
• But there cannot be scientific explanation of the
  universes temporal order. (5,6)
• God has brought about the temporal order of the
  universe. (3,4,7)

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Humes Twofold Attack

• There are not relevant similarities between human
  machines and nature.
• The teleological argument does not give us
  anything like the traditional conception of God.

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Is there a likeness between humanity and God?

• A house has a builder. (premise)
• The universe is not like a house it exhibits far
  more complexity than the house does. (premise)
• Thus, the builder of the house and the builder of
  the universe are not similar. (1,2)
• So, the teleological argument fails on this
  count. (3)