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Paley's Argument From Design
William Paley's version of the argument from design is that Nature has a discernible order to it; a design and therefore it can be inferred that there is a Creator behind it. Paley reached this conclusion through using an analogy involving a watch and an ordinary stone, on the basis of which he inferred that if from finding a watch on the ground, it can be reasoned that the watch was an object that had been designed by someone for a purpose, the same logic could also be applied to a stone. Paley built his theory by addressing conceivable objections to his analogy: the conclusion that the watch had been designed for a purpose would have been reached even if an observer had no prior knowledge of the object; or if the watch was not working at the time of reasoning; or even in the case that one drew the assumption that the said watch was from an infinite series of a line for it would still have an original creator. Using such a line of reasoning, Paley submitted the argument that the stone, like the watch, was not an accidental product...
Testing it for falsifiability, empirical evidence, deductive arguments or testing competing theories to arrive at the most likely explanation usually assesses this form of argument. For instance, using both empirical evidence and deduction, it is possible to assess Paley's comparison of the watch and stone. While the presence of different parts designed to operate in conjunction with each other in a watch serves a definite end purpose, the same cannot be said to be true of a stone even if it were to be broken into fragments to examine it for some internal design. From this perspective, Paley's logic does seem to be flawed, if only from the view that human kind has yet to arrive at the purpose of the universe's existence. However, if Paley's argument were to be viewed as analogous to the inner design…
Theism or Atheism? When humans consider the existence of God, they tend to look outward for evidence and inward for understanding. Humans must process both types of information through a filter that is based on an unwarranted confidence in human reasoning. Or, failing that, humans must fall back to rely on faith. The nature of faith may perhaps be characterized by an absence of definitive criteria other than the absolutes that
Watch Argument An Assessment of Paley's Natural theology: The Watch Argument In this section of Archdeacon of Carlisle William Paley's Natural Theology, the author constructs a detailed yet essentially simple and straightforward argument for the existence of God in the form of some primary designer. More specifically, Paley makes an argument against atheism or the belief that there is no such designer for the universe through a lengthy analogy about a watch,
" It is just as true today. There are still many things that cannot be explained by science. The appearance of design is as powerful today as it was over two thousand years ago. That is especially true of the living world. The more that geneticists and biologists study, the more it is seen that the living world exists with amazing complexity and sophistication. The cell is a perfect example. In Darwin's
McCloskey's refutation of the arguments of existence of God and illustration of how God (and metaphysics) can be perceived in different ways and that this precludes us from making any final judgments regarding His existence and manner of rulership. The Cosmological argument maintains that God's existence can be deduced from the fact that every act of creation needs an initiator. The world had a beginning -- after all it is
But science is about stepping stones: the creation of theories and hypothesis, and the testing of these hypotheses with empiricism. If these theories fail, then additional hypotheses have to be proposed. During the process of the testing these hypothesis, experimentalists will find evidence based that will enable to fine tuning of the hypothesis, and the process carries on. Indeed, most of quantum theory is hinged on the Uncertainty principle
Finally, the sestet ends with a question about whether any moral lessons can be learned from this little scene in nature: "[w]hat but design of darkness to appall/if design govern in a thing so small." In other words, the speaker is asking whether he should even try to draw any conclusions from the spider's destruction of the beautiful moth. The final lines of the poem not only call into question