1. THE DESIGN ARGUMENT
natural theology

2. THE TWO BOOKS

3. Proof of God
Applied Pure
Reason Reason

4. THREE MAJOR CATEGORIES
• Cosmological: the
universe and everything in it depends on
something [God] for its existence.
• Teleological: the
natural world appears to have been designed
(with a purpose) by a designer [God].
• Ontological: existence of God is entailed by the concept of
God.

5. PLATO
Timaeus (circa 360 BCE)
A benevolent demiurge (craftsman) who
worked with pre-existing matter to create
everything according to an eternal model
(paradigmata) consisting of ideals (forms,
eidos).

6. ARISTOTLE
Physics : Five elements (addition of the
quintessence, aether)
Metaphysics: Four causes (explanation of
how a thing came about)

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9. THOMAS AQUINAS
1224 - 1274
Converted Platonic demiurge into
Christian God.
Summa Theologica
Five proofs for the existence of
God (“The Five Ways”)

10. FROM MOTION
Nothing can move itself.
If every object in motion had a
mover, then the first object in
motion needed a mover.
This first mover is the Unmoved
Mover, called God.

11. FROM CAUSATION
There exists things that are caused
(created) by other things.
Nothing can be the cause of itself
(nothing can create itself.)
There can not be an endless string of
objects causing other objects to exist.
Therefore, there must be an
uncaused first cause called God.

12. THE DESIGN ARGUMENT
Teleological argument
Common sense tells us that the
universe works in such a way that
one can conclude that it was
designed by an intelligent designer.

13. EVIDENTIALISM
Any claim is rational if and
only if there is sufficient
evidence to support it, and
rationality is in direct
proportion to the balance of
evidence.
David Hume

14. THE MECHANICAL UNIVERSE

15. PHYSICO-THEOLOGY
• Revival of a posteriori arguments • John Ray - Wisdom of God
Manifested in the Works of the
Creation (1691)
• Particularly British (and Protestant) • Richard Bentley – A Confutation of
Atheism (1692)
• William Derham – Physico-Theology
• Aimed at the lay public rather than (1715)
theologians or natural philosophers
• Joseph Priestly – Disquisitions
Pertaining to Matter and Spirit
(1777)

16. NEWTON
“This most beautiful system of the sun,
planets, and comets, could only
proceed from the counsel and
dominion of an intelligent Being. … This
Being governs all things, not as the soul
of the world, but as Lord over all; and
on account of his dominion he is wont
to be called Lord God pantokrator …
The Supreme God is a Being eternal,
infinite, absolutely perfect being; but a
being, however perfect, without
dominion is not the Lord God.”

17. NEWTON
“Gravity explains the motions of
the planets, but it cannot explain
who set the planets in motion. God
governs all things and knows all that
is or can be done.”

18. ROBERT BOYLE
The universe “is like a rare clock …
where all things are so skillfully
contrived, that the engine being once
set a-moving, all things proceed
according to the artificer's first design,
and the motions … do not require
the particular interposing of the
artificer, or any intelligent agent
employed by him, but perform their
functions upon particular occasions, by
virtue of the general and primitive
contrivance of the whole engine.”

19. JOHN RAY
“There is for a free man no
occupation more worthy and
delightful than to contemplate
the beauteous works of nature
and honour the infinite wisdom
and goodness of God.” (1660)

20. JOHN RAY
“Let it not suffice to be book-
learned, to read what others
have written and to take upon
trust more falsehood than truth,
but let us ourselves examine
things as we have opportunity,
and converse with Nature as well
as with books.” (1691)

21. 1802

26. CICERO
“When you see a sundial or a water-
clock, you see that it tells the time by
design and not by chance. How then
can you imagine that the universe as
a whole is devoid of purpose and
intelligence, when it embraces
everything, including these artifacts
themselves and their artificers?”
De Natura Deorum

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29. ELLIOT SOBER
A: X is intricate and well suited to a task T
W1: X is a product of intelligent design
W2: X is a product of random physical forces
Paley claims that the likelihood of W1 given A exceeds that of
W2, i.e. P(A|W1) >> P(A|W2)
This is an abduction to the best explanation

30. THE DESIGN ARGUMENT
Many of the things we observe are
complicated, intricate and work well
together. This cannot have arisen by
chance and therefore must have arisen
by design.
Design implies a Designer (Argument
to Design)
Good, perfect and benevolent design
implies a good, perfect, benevolent
designer God (Argument from Design)

31. Contrivance shows presence of
designing intelligence whose
attributes “must be adequate to
the magnitude, extent, and
multiplicity of his operations”
“Uniformity of plan observable
in the universe” reflects the unity
and wisdom of God.
Goodness is proven by beneficial
nature of contrivances and
pleasure added to animal
sensations

32. “WE HAVE NO REASON TO
FEAR”
“The hinges in the wings of an earwig
and the joints of its antennae, are as
highly wrought, as if the Creator had
nothing else to finish. We see no signs
of diminution of care by multiplicity of
objects, or of distraction of thought by
variety. We have no reason to fear,
therefore, our being forgotten, or
overlooked, or neglected.”

33. “WE HAVE NO REASON TO
FEAR”

34. DAVID HUME

35. NATURAL RELIGION
Treatise on Human Nature
(1739-’40)
Our ideas reach no farther
than our experience and
we can thus have no
conception of divine
attributes

36. REVEALED RELIGION
An Enquiry Concerning
Human Understanding
(1748)
It is never reasonable to
believe in violations of
natural law

37. ORIGIN OF RELIGION
Natural History of Religion
(1757)
We are only left with
“vulgar religion” - the
religion of the masses,
emotions and instincts.
This religion has its origin in
dread of the unknown

38. NATURAL RELIGION
Dialogues Concerning
Natural Religion
1750’s / 1779

39. HUME’S VERSION OF PALEY
Watches are a product of intelligent design
Watches and organisms are similar (to a
degree)
∴ Organisms are a product of intelligent
design.
(This is an argument from analogy)

40. HUME’S (?) CONCLUSION
• Design argument is a flawed analogy
• Limits of our experience of the vast universe
• No definitive proof of the unity, powerfulness, or presence of
the creator
• “atotal suspension of judgement is here our only reasonable
resource.”

41. All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful: The rich man in his castle,
The Lord God made them all. The poor man at his gate,
He made them, high or lowly,
Each little flower that opens, And ordered their estate.
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

42. All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful: The rich man in his castle,
The Lord God made them all. The poor man at his gate,
He made them, high or lowly,
Each little flower that opens, And ordered their estate.
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

43. All things dull and ugly, All things sick and cancerous,
All creatures short and squat, All evil great and small,
All things rude and nasty, All things foul and dangerous,
The Lord God made the lot. The Lord God made them all.
Each little snake that poisons, All things scabbed and ulcerous,
Each little wasp that stings, All pox both great and small,
He made their brutish venom, Putrid, foul and gangrenous,
He made their horrid wings. The Lord God made them all.

45. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is not
omnipotent.
Is He able, but not willing? Then He is malevolent.
Is He both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is He neither able nor willing? Then why call Him God?

47. “NATURE, RED IN TOOTH &
CLAW”
Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life;
‘So careful of the type?’ but no.
From scarped cliff and quarried stone
She cries, ‘A thousand types are gone:
I care for nothing, all shall go.

48. CHARLES DARWIN
Design was apparent and did not
imply a designer.
Natural mechanisms were sufficient
to explain good (and bad) design
“Evil” is a meaningless concept when
considering the natural world.

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