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William paley argument about the design and the designer
William paley argument about the design and the designer
William paley argument about the design and the designer
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In “The Argument of Design,” William Paley argues that the universe has a designer. The need for an intelligent designer is portrayed through his comparison between a watch and the human eye. In this paper, I will critically evaluate William Paley’s argument by giving a brief summery of the content I will be focusing on and discuss how I believe that his arguments are not valid.
To begin with, Paley portrayed a situation of viewing a rock and asking where it came from. He answered this by concluding that it had been there forever since it is just a simple object, but it would have been different if it were a complex object, like a watch. The answer to the question would be different if the object was a watch because a watch is a complex, the parts are put together in a specific way, it has a specific purpose, thus, it must have a designer because it could not have just been there (Paley 58). This claim could be represented by this argument:
P1): A watch is a complex object
P2): Complex objects need a designer
C): Thus, a watch has a designer
The argument thus far do seem strong and valid, meaning that if the premises were true, the conclusion would also be true, but Paley uses this as an argument to portray that the universe must have an intelligent designer.
Paley beings to describe the human eye and depicts its structure. He then mentions that it differentiates from the eye of a fish because the eye a fish is rounds and helps them in water. He also mentions the eye of a bird and how it helps them see near objects because it is a necessity. He uses these facts to come to his final conclusion: the universe is so complex that there must be a powerful, intelligent designer that created it (Paley 32). Paley does mention that the...
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... is a designer does not necessary mean that it has to be perfect (Paley 30).
Thirdly, there is no designer because some parts of the watch do not have a function. Paley responds by stating that just because we are not currently aware of the function of some parts of the watch, it does not mean that they actually do not have a function (Paley 30).
Fourthly, the objection that the watch is a chance event is dismissed by Paley by stating that it being a chance is impossible to believe because no body in their right sense would think that.
The objection that there is a law or principle that disposed the watch and made it be in that form is dismissed by Paley because he indicated that the principle of order cannot create the existence of a complex object.
Works Cited
William, Paley. "The Argument from Design." PHL 110. Toronto: James Cunningham, 2013. 58-65. Print.
The ability to compare the universe to a watch allows for familiarity, which is what I believe draws agreement and acknowledgement of his argument. It is thought that, as humans, we have at least one person in existence that is aware of how to put together a properly functioning watch, and we know that a watch needs to be put together intelligently. Given Paley’s reasoning he presents that the world is also intricately made which creates a parallel between a watch in the universe, giving individuals a sense of familiarity. As such, it naturally follows that there ought to be a universe maker, or God, who appears to be the only one capable of doing such a thing. Primarily, my concern is that the intelligent maker must be God; Paley merely assumes that the reader agrees and gives no further insight on why the creator must be God. Furthermore, he assumes the universe works without proof or any real knowledge which seems a rather fatal flaw. It is irresponsible to believe that the universe works the way we assume to fulfill our desire to explain the existence of God, similar to Mackie’s objection to the cosmological argument (Mackie 171). I do not believe Paley’s argument survives Hume’s objection due to the necessity of experience. He merely uses analogy to justify his claim; the only difference is that he has experience with a watch and none in regards to the universe. Again, he is
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William Paley develops his view of the design argument through an example of a wristwatch. He has the reader imagine themselves coming across a watch on the ground. He then asks the reader how they think the watch came to be there or came to exist in the first place. Looking at the watch, Paley says that one will notice the intricate design of the watch and notice that all the parts were put together in such a way to serve a purpose, namely, to tell time. Paley believes that from looking at the watch we will be lead to think that the watch has a clever designer. The watch displays a certain evidence of its own design.
In the The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, fukú and zafa are forces depicted as interconnected opposites of each other: fukú is represented as the evils of colonization, and zafa is depicted as the counterspell to fukú. When fukú is first introduced in the book, it is not mentioned without zafa. Throughout the book, fukú is depicted as a faceless man, and zafa is depicted as a golden mongoose. Zafa predates fukú, and continues keeping the de León family safe from harm, whether the family is endangered by the Trujillo regime or not. While at first the novel seems to show them as interconnected forces, the details provided throughout the novel allude to the idea that zafa (good) is more powerful than fukú (evil).
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The reason why the argument fails is because Paley put’s emphasis on giving things a single sole purpose. If things had multiple purposes from Paley’s point of view then it would be a lot more difficult to strike the argument down. This argument also shows the 3 point rule god. Paley has shown in this argument that god is all good, all powerful, and all knowing. The argument also gives a good argument as to how certain things must have intelligent design in order for it to be created. This is where I believe it mostly thrives. If we were to look at another argument like The Ontological Argument it states that the greatest thing that we can conceive exists in the mind, but it is greater to exist in reality than in the mind, but if nothing greater than god can be conceived in the mind then god must exist in reality. This argument can easily be torn apart if someone just believes that god is not the greatest thing that can be conceived. It also does not prove god’s existence throughout the world physically, but with the mind. Where as Paley’s argument shows god through the “creations” he has created and explaining how god is the
The first argument to be discussed is that of conceivability, which aims to disprove that the mind and
The claims of rationality and the so-called scientific approach of the atheists and agnostics have been debunked. In the coming pages we shall see that both in the creation of the universe, in things created within the universe and in the creation of living beings, an intelligently designed process is going on, and we shall demonstrate that the objections of agnostics and skeptics to this assertion are merely delusions.
...ion of patterns of emergence, however he lacks the unwillingness to differentiate (weak when applying the theories to modern technological advances) between spontaneous emergence and evolved systems in science.
Zaabalawi is a religious narration whose main protagonist is an unnamed man with dire concerns regarding his failing health and is in search of a miracle cure. Zaabalawi is a holy person who can treat incurable disease, and the story outlines the narrator’s search for this man all over the alleys, offices, and streets in the city. As he begins the search, the narrator visits old acquaintances of Zaabalawi who have now become highly successful and materialistic but have no idea of the whereabouts of the Sheik. The narrator first meets a wealthy lawyer, Sheik Qamar, who lives in Garden City and regards the speaker with contempt. The second person that he meets is the local district Sheik who informs him that Zaabalawi has no fixed residences. The narrator meets several people during his searches such as the bookseller, the calligrapher, and the musician who finally sent him to a bar where he met Zaabalawi while supposedly having a dream. The
He says design requires a designer, the works of nature also requires a designer and that designer is God. From this Paley creates his four arguments for God’s existence from analogies, which are argument from design is based on experience, argument from design assumes that we are different in kind, but same in degree, argument from design argues from mind/thought to design, and argument from design assumes that all things are created by matter.... ... middle of paper ... ...
An inspection of the modern animal phyla will reveal that eyes are just as diverse as they are complex. Some organisms like the rag worm have pigmented cup eyes while other like he box jellyfish have two lens eyes and two pairs of pigment pit eyes. To account for the diversity in eye structure, we must first examine the eye ‘prototype’, the original structure that was acted upon by evolution. The simplest organ that can be considered an eye is composed of a single photoreceptor cell and a single pigment cell, without any lens or other refractive body (Arendt, 2003). Such organs are know as eyespots, and...
He had two different approaches to how the universe was created. Paley compared a watched the way the universe, he thought the world was like a machine it must have a des... ... middle of paper ... ... nthropic Principle’ believed that ‘Nature produces living beings but with fine tuning that is found in the universe; life could just as easily not developed into earth’ I think that this quote is trying to say that the universe has been developed by evolution and was created by God, a designer.
Paley observes the first distinguishing feature of the watch to be its possession of complex, moveable parts. He lists some of these parts—a cylindrical box, an elastic spring, a flexible chain, a series of wheels, an index, and