William Paley (1743-1805)

1. William Paley (1743-1805) Teleological Argument

2. Teleology • In Greek Telos means end or purpose. • Teleology is the study of design and purpose. • If things are designed or created they might have an intended intentionalityorpurpose. • If a thing exhibits a purpose it will probably have parts that show that they have been intentionally put together in a certain way.

3. Watch and Stone Analogy • Imagine that you find a stone and you ask yourself “how did this get here?” • Imagine that you find watch and you ask yourself “how did this get here?”

4. How did they come to be? Stone Watch • It has simply laid there from eternity and that there is no special explanation for its existence. • It has no cause. • It has no design. • It exhibits no design or intentionality. • The answer that it has simply laid there from eternity and has no special explanation for its existenceis not sufficient. • The watch is a mechanism that appears to accomplish a purpose. • It exhibits a design and intentionality

5. Why Does the Watch Show Purpose? • Parts are formed and adjusted to produce motion. • The motion is regulated to point out the time of day. • If the parts were differently shaped, located, or ordered, then the watch would not move to tell the time of day, i.e., it would not work and it could not complete its purpose.

6. Two Possibilities • The first possibility is that all these variables – the size, shape, material of which each part is made, their locations, etc. – came together by accident or chance. • The second possibility is that the watch was designed by an intelligent agent.

7. Design vs. Chance Design Chance • A design requires a artificer. • Design requires an intelligence of some kind that can think in terms of means and ends. • Chance is random. • So if I simply throw up all the pieces of the watch in the air what are the chances that the pieces fall in the perfect order and location for the watch to work?

8. Rational Belief • It seems more rational (i.e., it seems more probable) that the watch was designed than that it came about by chance.

9. Objections 1) You have never seen a watch and you don’t know a designer capable of making one. 2) The watch sometimes does not work properly. 3) The watch has superfluous parts. 4) The configuration of the watch was one of many possible ones. No special explanation is required.

10. Objections 5) There is a principle of order that can explain the order in the watch. 6) The watch is not proof of contrivance only a motive to induce the mind to think so. 7) The watch is simply the result of some laws of nature. 8) We know nothing about the matter, i.e., how watches work or how they are made.

11. Application of the Argument Watch Nature • Has purpose • Complex • Many Variable • Happened by chance unlikely • Shows design • Has purpose • More complex • More variables • Happened by chance less likely • Shows design

12. Conclusion • It is more reasonable to believe that the world was designed by an intelligent agent than to believe that the world was just there for ever and has no intelligent designer.