William Paley's The Teleological Argument
I Thesis
The Teleological Argument presented by William Paley is not a good nor a sound argument due to Paley’s use of the word ‘generally’ in premise three as well as his failure to establish a God, in all aspects of the word, existence. I now will explain each premise of the Teleological Argument and all of its premise’s in Section II, then in Section III explain why I believe this argument fails and is unsound.
II The Teleological Argument
In the Theological Argument, Premise one says that ‘The world, and every part of it, is like a machine, in that its parts are adjusted to each other, with means adapted to ends’. Paley explains how finding a mechanical watch on the ground is like understanding the world (Paley, 56). The watch displays
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Again premise three says ‘Generally, when effects resemble each other, their causes do as well’. In Hume’s objection it says if two things are exactly alike, then they are general caused by things that are exactly alike. The world is not exactly like a machine though, some parts may be comparable but there are immense differences. One example from class was a crater created by a bomb and a crater created by a meteorite. Another example is a forest fire; it could be created by a lighting strike or by human fault. Therefore, the world is not like a machine and because the analogy between a machine and the world collapses then there is no reason to believe that an intelligent designer created the world. Another alternative is that the world is actually more like a living organism than it is to a machine. This route would prove the second part of premise one ‘…parts adjusted to each other, with means to ends’. This would entail that the world was created in much the same way plants are produced. Therefore the world is an offspring of another world or worlds bigger and older and evolution gives us many credible justifications for how substances like plants and even animals came into existence. The Theological Argument also fails to establish God in all aspects of the word. As humans we are flawed and finite, thus we make flawed
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