The Design Argument

Question 0

what does an acorn to an oak tree symbolise?

Answer 0

purpose

Question 1

how did aquinas develop his design argument?

Answer 1

from aristotle, cicero & islamic philosophy

Question 2

what does arrow to archer symbolise?

Answer 2

purpose and direction

Question 3

qua purpose

Answer 3

all things have a telos

Question 4

what did hume reject in his critique?

Answer 4

a priori reasoning

Question 5

who were the 4 characters hume used?

Answer 5

Pamphilus
Cleanthes
Philo
Deniea

Question 6

who were the two key characters out of the four presented by hume?

Answer 6

Philo and Cleanthes

Question 7

what role did cleanthes play?

Answer 7

beliefs from the teleological argument

Question 8

what role did philo play?

Answer 8

hume himself (own position)

Question 9

what does philo (hume) say?

Answer 9

• producer (god) must be inefficient
• many gods - anthropomorphic - uneducated gods
• design implies designer
• order is not the same as design

Question 10

what assumptions do people make? DESIGN ARGUMENT

Answer 10

that things would always end up how they do/have

Question 11

what was paley’s analogy?

Answer 11

qua order

Question 12

who was paley aware of when he wrote the blind watchmaker?

Answer 12

hume

Question 13

who was paley highly influenced by?

Answer 13

charles darwin and utilitarianism

Question 14

what kind of argument is paley’s?

Answer 14

inductive - observed premises

Question 15

what is the most likely explination/most persuaive? DESIGN ARGUMENTS

Answer 15

god

Question 16

what isn’t paley seeking to do?

Answer 16

not to prove god’s existence but that god offers the best explination

Question 17

what did dawkins say?

Answer 17

god is irrelevant - natural selection is key

Question 18

what is dawkins arguing?

Answer 18

brute fact (simpler and more ellegant)

Question 19

what is the most plausible explanation of design? SWINBURNE

Answer 19

1. infinite number of universes
2. we are here. it just happened.
3. intelligence behind the universe

Question 20

what kind of argument is the teleological argument?

Answer 20

a posteriori, inductive, synthetic

Question 21

what are teleological arguments?

Answer 21

arguments for the existence of god by observing the design in the universe

Question 22

what are the two types of design argument?

Answer 22

design qua regularity - aquinas

design qua purpose -paley

Question 23

when was paley’s argument put forward?

Answer 23

in the early 19th century

Question 24

what does paley's argument suggest?

Answer 24

that everything is designed to fulfil a purpose (uses the analogy of the watch)

Question 25

what are the 4 steps of paley's watch analogy?

Answer 25

1) imagine finding a watch on a heath, it is very complex 2) therefore it must have been designed 3) design implies designer 4) therefore the watch must have been designed by a designer

Question 26

what can paley's watch analogy be applied to?

Answer 26

the universe

Question 27

what are there clear signs of in the universe?

Answer 27

design and purpose

Question 28

what does design imply?

Answer 28

a designer

Question 29

is design implies designer, what must there be?

Answer 29

a designer, who is thought to be god

Question 30

what does paley argue about god's existence?

Answer 30

god necessarily exists due to the need for a designer

Question 31

what does aquinas's argument suggest?

Answer 31

that the designer starts off a chain of design one thing after another

Question 32

what does paley's argument suggest?

Answer 32

everything fitting together or a purpose like machine (product of enlightenment thinking)

Question 33

what did FR Tennant put forward an argument for?

Answer 33

suggests that the needs of humanity have been provided for, therefore suggesting the existence of a designer

Question 34

what did richard swinburne suggest?

Answer 34

that the probability of humanity coming into existence is so huge that it is probable that there is an intelligent designer behind the universe

Question 35

where did david hume criticise the argument?

Answer 35

in his 'dialogues on religion'

Question 36

what did hume use to criticise the argument?

Answer 36

4 characters

Question 37

what character was used in hume's 1st and 2nd reply?

Answer 37

philo

Question 38

when were hume's replies written in relation to paley's argument?

Answer 38

23 years prior to paley's argument - paley was aware of hume's criticisms before hand

Question 39

what did hume say that our knowledge of god's designing makes god? hume's first reply

Answer 39

1)like effects presupppose like causes therefore if we are designed by god does that make him just a superhuman figure

Question 40

what did hume say regarding evidence of good design? hume's first reply

Answer 40

although there is evidence of good design in the universe, there is also evidence of bad design

Question 41

where does the idea of multiple god's come from? hume's first reply

Answer 41

strong links between design IN the universe and design OF the universe humans collaborate to make something, maybe many god's did too

Question 42

what happens if you say that there are only weak links between design IN the universe and design OF the universe? hume's first reply

Answer 42

whole argument is weakened?

Question 43

what was hume's second reply?

Answer 43

1) it is perfectly possible for order to come out of chaos | 2) an infinite number of combinations of universes are possible

Question 44

what does hume say we should do following his first and second replies?

Answer 44

SUSPEND JUDGEMENT on whether there is a God

Question 45

what is JS Mills statement on nature? CRITICISM

Answer 45

nature commits terrible crimes that humans would be punished for

Question 46

what does JS Mill say on suffering and the design of the universe?

Answer 46

there is so much suffering in the world that it could not be the design of an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent god

Question 47

what does JS Mill reject?

Answer 47

the god of classical theism and the design argument of paley and aquinas

Question 48

what did charles darwin say about the design argument?

Answer 48

read paley's argument and thought it was really good, but felt that his theory of evolution proved the argument wrong

Question 49

why does richard dawkins reject the argument?

Answer 49

he says that faith is anti-intellectual

Question 50

why does dawkins say there is not design of the universe?

Answer 50

because it is just natural selection and we are just slaves to our genes