R.e. - Teleological Argument

Front 1

Teleological Argument

Back 1

Telos - Greek - End or purpose

A Posteriori - Based on experience

Inductive - if the premises are true then the conclusion is

Hint 1

3 definitions

Front 2

Genesis 1.25

Back 2

"God made all the creatures that move along the ground and God saw that it was good"

Hint 2

FOR - 1 full quote

Front 3

Plato

Back 3

God (Demiurge) couldn't create matter 'ex nihilo' (like Bible God) but organised preexisting matter into a logical order.

Hint 3

FOR - 3 foreign words

Front 4

Aristotle

Back 4

Everything has a final cause ('telos'). The ultimate cause was the 'prime mover' - God.

Hint 4

FOR

Front 5

Cicero

Back 5

Observation of the world indicates "Some divinity or superior intelligence"

Hint 5

FOR - 1 Short quote

Front 6

Aquinas

Back 6

(1225-1274) Summa Theologica 5th of 5 ways - Design qua regularity - things lacking intelligence act with regularity (i.e. planets)

Design qua purpose - things act as if they are aiming for a purpose - "it is plain they achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly" - like an arrow requires an archer to direct it - god = archer

Hint 6

FOR - 2 definitions, 1 quote

Front 7

Paley

Back 7

(1743-1805) Natural Theology

Watchmaker analogy -

"Every indication of contrivance which exists in the watch exists in the works of nature"

Example of oxygen (2% +/-)

Also argues design qua regularity - astronomy, orbit, gravity

Hint 7

FOR - One quote

Front 8

John Polkinghorne

Back 8

God chose to create a universe governed by science; as our knowledge of science grows, so too will our knowledge of God.

Hint 8

FOR

Front 9

Williams

Back 9

"DNA exhibits too much 'design work' to be the product of mere chance"

Hint 9

FOR - Quote

Front 10

Paul Davies

Back 10

Goldilocks Enigma

Hint 10

FOR

Front 11

Fred Hoyle

Back 11

"The chance that higher lifeforms might have emerged in this way is comparable to the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747"

Hint 11

FOR - Quote

Front 12

Richard Swinburne

Back 12

Spatial order explained by darwin but temporal order follows simple laws - "how extraordinary that is!".

Had to be specific circumstances for the world to come about (Dyson - fine-tuning)

Ockhams razor - simplest explanation is god

Hint 12

FOR - Quote

Front 13

Tremblay

Back 13

Swinburne assumes the natural state of the universe is chaotic and ugly

Hint 13

Against

Front 14

Hume

Back 14

(1711-1776)

World is more like a self-regulating organism (Lovelock's Gaia)

Chaotic matter can fall into order of its own accord (Epicurean Hypothesis)

Senile designer because of E&S?

Hint 14

Against

Front 15

Flew

Back 15

Ducklings, acorns and embryos don't require interference from a higher being.

The claim that an intelligent hand must shape the natural world isn't supported by our observations.

Hint 15

Against

Front 16

Darwin

Back 16

Mechanical explanation for life

Evolution, natural selection etc.

"The old argument from design in nature, as given by Paley, fails now that the law of natural selection has been discovered."

Hint 16

Against - Quote

Front 17

Dawkins

Back 17

Everything in the universe follows a finite set of rules

Hint 17

Against - Q

Front 18

Anthropic Principle (Tennant)

Back 18

Tennant - (1866-1957)We fit so well, the world must have been designed for us

Only god can provide an accurate explanation for why humans contemplate the universe

Hint 18

For (Anthropic)

Front 19

Mark Twain (AP)

Back 19

"Like thinking the eiffel tower was built for the lick of paint at the top"

Hint 19

Against (Anthropic) - Quote

Front 20

Dawkins (AP)

Back 20

We have developed to fit the world and one day we will die out.

Analogy of puddle - thinking the hole was created for the water, even as it dries up.

Hint 20

Against (Anthropic)

Front 21

Christian response to AP criticism

Back 21

We have reason which sets us apart from animals - pinnacle of God's creation

Hint 21

For (Anthropic)

Front 22

Aesthetic Argument (Tennant)

Back 22

World is "saturated with beauty" and our appreciation of this has no survival value

“beauty and human appreciation of it may be seen as signs that God wishes to draw us towards the Divine rather than to be simply content with survival.”

Kant supported this

Hint 22

For (Aesthetic) - Quote

Front 23

Criticisms of AA

Back 23

Lots of ugly things in the world - our appreciation of beauty is social conditioning

Hitchens "The eyes were adjusted to nature, and not the other way about."

Dosteovsky - human suffering is too great for creation to be worth it

Hint 23

Against (Aesthetic) - Quote

Front 24

Mill

Back 24

God may be designer but he is not omnibenevolent - world is evidence (i.e. murder)

"I will call no being good, who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures"

Hint 24

Questions Aesthetic - Quote