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An Analysis Of Paley's Argument From Design

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Rohinie Persaud
Phi 1010: Introduction to Philosophy
February 17, 2015

Argument from Design

The Watchmaker analogy is a Teleological Argument for the existence of God. A teleological argument is known as an argument from design, and claims that there is an order to nature that is defended by the presence of some kind of intelligent designer. A common argument occurs in The Watch and the Watchmaker by William Paley. His analogy in my opinion is insignificant and focused off of an assumption through observation and not evidence through observation. According to the argument, the objects found in the universe provide evidence for the existence of God. Paley argues a watch is like the universe in function and complexity, a watch needs a designer, and therefore, the universe needs a designer as well. He points out that the watch is complicated with many parts, yet all work together to form a well-designed instrument. Paley explains that all the pieces of the watch were put together to serve a specific purpose. No matter how many watches were made before this one, Paley defends that the watch still has a maker. Other watches cannot design watches, some higher being must have created at least the first one. The creator obviously understands how the …show more content…
The first objection is that we have no information of earth’s creation. Hume states the fact that everything we claim to know have originated from previous experiences of similar objects being created. For instance, with a watch we know it has to be created by a watchmaker because we can witness it being made and compare it to other similar watches in their design. However, he argues that we have no experience of the earth's creation, or any other universe's creations to associate our own universe to, and will never so it would be invalid to assume that an intelligent designer has created our universe in the same way in which a watch

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