William Paley's Watchmaker Argument

William Paley (1743 – 1805) was a professor of philosophy at Cambridge University who is most notably known for his watchmaker argument that seeks to prove a theistic view of god. By relating a watch to the natural world he uses argument by analogy in order to prove the design argument, or the teleological argument, which concludes that god’s existence can be proven by the order, complexity, and apparent purposefulness, within the natural world. [Insert thesis] Paley’s watchmaker argument states that if he walked upon a stone on the ground and was asked how it came to be there, he would answer for all that he knew it had been there forever. But supposing he found a watch on the ground and it was inquired how the watch ended up in …show more content…
Darwin’s theory of evolution states that animals are subject to changes over a long period of time. The changes are initially due to a random mutation in the gene pool but if these mutations result in advantageous traits that help the individuals thrive in their environments these traits are passed on to the next generation, since those with the advantageous traits have a better chance of surviving and reproducing, thus eventually these traits becoming common in the species, resulting in Darwin’s idea of evolution. Darwin’s idea of evolution helps identify the obvious differences between nature and mechanical objects. Natural things are living, thus they are subject to a biological factor that mechanical or nonliving entities are not. These findings negate Paley’s watch analogy because in order for the analogy to be successful it must prove to be similar, and relevant. The addition of natural laws and biological aspects to the natural world provide dissimilarity between the two claims within Paley’s argument. Darwin’s idea of evolution yields an explanation to the apparent order, complexity, and purposefulness in nature that was once unexplainable, and which was the basis of Paley’s natural design