Paley's Argument For The Existence Of God

William Paley is a philosopher well known in the 18th and 19th century. He was well known for his piece entitled, “Natural Theology” which is a piece that argues for the existence of God and constantly compares it to a watch. He argues that if no one has seen someone one has seen a watch before, they would most likely believe that someone created it. He argues this because the complexity of the object was to complex for it to have just been that way naturally. In some people 's opinions, God can not create something so complex and can only be man made.

Mike Allan S. Nillo BS Physics Comm 1 C Then his wife said to him, “Are you still unshaken in your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he answered, “. . . If we accept good from God, shall we not accept evil?” (Job 2:9-10)

In Proslogium St. Anselm presents his argument for the existence of God, an argument that has thus far withstood the test of time and many criticisms, one of which I will discuss here. Anselm works his way from the “fool’s” assumption that God does not exist, or at least does not exist in reality, through his premises that existence is greater than understanding alone and that a being with God’s properties and existence can be conceived of, to the conclusion that because God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived and God can exist in understanding, God must exist in reality. Gaunilo, a fellow monk, gives his criticism of Anselm’s argument in the form of a reductio ad absurdum argument. Gaunilo attempts to show Anselm’s argument to be false by taking a parody of Anselm’s argument to an extreme and absurd conclusion, that being the existence of the Perfect Island from the same reasoning as the existence of God. I then present a reply that I believe to be in accordance with something Anselm might have responded to Gaunilo with.

Anselm was a Greek philosopher who was born in 1033 in Aosta, Italy. He was a Benedictine abbot in France who went into self-imposed exile to protest King William II of England and he was also a disciple of Augustine and he promoted a lot of Augustine’s teachings and beliefs. Anselm held the office of archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109, because in 1109 Anselm died. After his death in 1109 he was canonized as a saint, and his feast day is on April 21. Anselm believed that it was not possible to think of absolutely nothing.

The teleological argument to me is what makes God’s existence real because of the design of our world and the creation of the living things. Who else could have created the earth and all the living things around us? It couldn’t be the humans; because it brings us back to the question on how were humans created? Everything has a starting point, and this starting point happens to be an intelligent designer who created the universe. A man can create such things as electronics, statues and buildings but can’t design the world and all the living things.

The philosopher William Paley discussed the existence of God in the so called the teleological argument. The teleological argument is also known as Intelligent Design, or the argument from design. In order to explain the existence of God, William Paley gave us what is known as an argument by analogy. This form of inductive argument invites us to consider a particular state of affairs. For instance, let us set two situations; situation A for which we are already likely to have certain beliefs, and then likens it to situation B, with which we are less familiar.

Saint Anselm came up with the ontological argument that only a fool would believe that God does not exist. An ontological argument is hand in hand with a Platonic a priori where there is a strong attempt made to prove that God exists by the concept of his existence. Saint Anselm’s argument is that even someone thick minded, or has a low IQ can state that there is a God, and for this to be possible, God must exist. He backs his argument up by comparing what is imagined up in the mind and what is in reality. Reality is existence, and imagining something up is nonexistent.

Megan Castro Professor Jason Southworth PHI 2010 January 25, 2016 Paper #1: Paley In William Paley 's The Teleological Argument, Paley concludes that God exists-or rather a "watchmaker", i.e. a designer of the universe, exists. Paley presents his argument with the over-stretching of the analogy that the existence of such an intricate design that is a watch, has a great purpose, as opposed to a stone that is of no use, and serves as proof of a watchmaker. Paley uses the example of a watch to explain and conclude that the universe is just the same. The intricate design that is the universe has a great purpose and serves as proof of a universe maker, i.e. God, which further concludes that God exists.

The existence of God has been presented by a multitude of philosophers. However, this has led to profound criticism and arguments of God’s inexistence. The strongest argument in contradiction to God’s existence is the Problem of Evil, presented by J.L Mackie. In this paper, I aim to describe the problem of evil, analyse the objection of the Paradox of Omnipotence and provide rebuttals to this objection. Thus, highlighting my support for Mackie’s Problem of evil.

Personally, I believe the conclusion of the transcendental argument for the existence of God. In my opinion, Immanuel Kant is more credible because he created the argument and supported it using many examples, whereas Michael Martin only found errors with the TAG. I agree with Kant because this theory is a cause and effect, meaning that God’s existence caused human reason. In Critique of Pure Reason, Kant states that logic originates from an individual’s belief in God. If someone believes that God created the world, then He is the reason why the laws of logic exist.