Suppose this is your essay question – Can teleological arguments be defended against criticisms from David Hume? [40]

AO1: Teleological, or design arguments infer from the observation that the world is well-ordered that there must be intelligent design behind it. There are two main philosopher’s arguments to focus on:

• Aquinas’ 5th Way. Aquinas blends Aristotelian metaphysics (particularly, the thought that everything has a purpose) with Catholic theology. All five ways are arguments for the existence of God.

For AO1, I encourage that you include an introductory sentence for each thinker: including their name, years lived or at least the century, roughly where, a title of their notable work, the kind of philosophy they defended + maybe an interesting fact about their life/influence/context in which they wrote (what was going on at the time).

Aquinas’ 5th Way runs as follows:

• P1 – Things that lack intelligence have an end (a purpose).
• P2 – Things that lack intelligence cannot move towards their end unless directed by someone with intelligence.
• P3 – [Analogy] an arrow does not direct itself towards its target, but needs an archer to direct it.
• Conclusion: Therefore (by analogy) there must be some intelligent being which directs all unintelligent natural things towards their end. This being we call God.

• Paley’ watch analogy – if you came across a watch in a field you would assume, given its complexity, that it had been designed. Similarly, if you stumbled across the universe/Earth, given the complexity of nature, you would assume an intelligent designer. That intelligent designer must be God.

Hume’s criticisms

• David Hume and the ‘Epicurean’ thesis (Epicurus mentions it first). [Epicurus – Ancient Greek philosopher – 340BC-270BC Stoic; David Hume – Scottish Enlightenment, 1711-1776 – wrote Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Empiricist – rejects knowledge of what is unobservable].

• It could be that the universe as it is, exists as the result of an accident rather than the creation of any god(s).

• Similarly, it could be that a very large set of events over extended space and time randomly, eventually led to what we know as the universe today and it was not guided by intelligence but a very, very long process of trial and error.

• Why assume the intelligent designer = God of classical theism?

• Why assume they are a personal God who can relate to us?

• Why assume it’s one God? Why not a team?

• Why assume that God is still around?

• Why assume that the designer and creator are the same being?

• Why is a watch a good analogy (i.e. don’t compare the world to a machine), why not think of the world more like a cabbage – organic, complex, but not in the way you would assume intelligent design?

• Design faults – nature can be horrible. The disorder in the world implies not intelligent design but a flawed creator!

AO2 – which challenge to teleological arguments is the most devastating? Or perhaps all of them can be adequately answered and do not pose a threat to design arguments in general?