Sunday, 23 February 2014
The argument from design
The argument
One of the common arguments for the existence of God is based on William Paley's famous watchmaker analogy (see here). The argument can be used for any "creator" god and it goes like this:"There are evidences all around you, but most importantly, look at yourself, You have the ability to talk, walk and reason. You have bones, tissues, organs and systems of your body that work perfectly together in harmony like a machine. You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Everything you see around you was made by someone. Things like cars, houses, electronic gadgets and what have you. All these things were made by someone but who made you?"
This is the argument from design or the teleological argument. Put more formally it would be:
P1) Things that look designed have been designed
P2) Things that are designed must have a designer
P3) Humans exist and look designed
THEREFORE
C1) A human designer must exist
P4) The Bible says God created humans
THEREFORE
C2) God must exist
Critique
For this argument to be valid ALL the premises must be true and the conclusions must necessarily follow from them with no logical fallacies.Premise P1 is not true. It can be successfully challenged in, at least, two ways:
1) We can find examples of things that look designed but are not. Consider for example, snowflakes. They look exquisitely designed but are completely natural. We know in great detail how they form.
Also, consider the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland; hundreds of evenly shaped basalt rocks that fit together perfectly like a grand design but the Giants Causeway is known to be a natural phenomenon.
If things can LOOK designed but be natural, premise (P1) is not true.
2) When we place living things and non-living things into a single group and argue what is true for non-living things is also true for living things, we are making a category error. Life has some distinct properties that non-life does not have:
Life reproduces itself. Non-life does not. Reproduction is not a perfect process so populations experience variability—not all dogs or humans or any specie are identical. For example, some may be taller, faster, see or hear better, have more intelligence, make more efficient use of food and so on.
Life is subject to environmental pressures which some members of a population can deal with better than others. This leads to gradual changes in populations. Over time, especially when environmental pressures are high, these small changes can accumulate into large changes. So life adapts to its environment (or becomes extinct). Non-life does not.
This means life can appear to change its design in response to its environment with no help from a designer. Non-life cannot do that.
Consequently, it is not true that things that look designed necessarily are designed so premise (P1) is false.
Premise P2 is agreed; things that are designed must have a designer.
Premise P3 says, “Humans exist and look designed”. Humans may look designed, but as we have seen at (P1), not all things that look designed are designed so (P3) is not agreed.
If humans were cars, we would all agree with conclusion (C1) but humans are in a different category, so the conclusion “A human designer must exist” is not proven.
Premise (P4) says “The Bible says God created humans”. The Bible does say that but that does not mean it is true. Fatally, this premise ASSUMES the very thing we are trying to prove—that God exists. So this premise is an example of circular reasoning and must, therefore, be rejected.
Consequently, conclusion (C2) “God must exist” is not proven.
Conclusion
The teleological argument is a very bad argument. It relies on at least two false premises and circular reasoning. Its conclusions that a designer of life exists and that designer is God cannot be accepted.
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About Me
- Nildogma
- As a 20-year-old I was insatiably curious about the world and passionate about rejecting superstitions and all kinds of false beliefs. I still am today. Sometimes when people believe things that are not true, it make little or no difference but sometimes the consequences can be disastrous and deadly. Now, I do what I can to help people improve their thinking skills, especially in how they impinge on core beliefs, such as cultural values and religious beliefs. I have an active Facebook page for which I create memes and write articles almost daily. I also engage people in on-line debates. You can find me here: https://www.facebook.com/bill.flavell.1 I lecture at universities around the world and present or debate at public meetings. I also, draw on my management consultancy background to help freethought groups, almost anywhere in the world, to get organised, develop strategy and improve their media and presentation skills. If you would like me to present at your university or for your church group or freethought group, please contact me.
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