Cleanthes

1067 Words3 Pages

Cleanthes is trying to argue, using the analogy of the Watch and the Watchmaker, that an intelligent designer must be assumed for the purpose-revealing watch, so an intelligent Grand Designer may be inferred in explaining the purpose-revealing world. Both products, the world and watch, reveal an intricate and positive design; thus, each has to have its own intelligent designer. Also, because the universe is like a watch, we can infer it has an intelligent designer by the fact that it may be proved to be mechanical through mathematical concepts. In a watch several parts are put together for a purpose. The parts are together in a particular formation, so there must be reasons for its placement, giving away its cause of existence. Given that the watch has a purpose, this obvious design would force one to conclude the watch must have had a maker. Perfection, like that in a watch, needs a creator because the coincidence or chance of being made without a creator is highly unlikely. The belief that a watchmaker will always exists, even if the individual does or know a watchmaker or has seen a watch made, no other explanation of a watch’s existence could be feasible or logical without believing that there was once a watchmaker. Whether the contraption works or not is not the focus; the focus is on whether a plan has been made for the instrument to reveal that a design was intended.
In very complex machines, missing or undiscovered parts are more likely to arise; yet, such disorder would no doubt make an individual more curious as to the objects purpose. Although in some cases, a part may seem useless, the individual would continue to question and wonder what purpose that part serves. No one could believe that the watch was assembled together with sheer luck; therefore, an intelligent designer exists. The watch is definitely not made by the principle of order and it is not believable to say or think that the watch was not invented. Design cannot exist without the designer. Every appearance of design, which exists in the watch, exists in the works of nature. While the world is far more complex than a simplistic instrument, like a watch, it is no different when compared at the base levels, especially when seeing that both are so mechanical, showing elements of order.
Hume sets out the argument from design to prove that the universe is like a watch.

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