Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
31 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Where does the word "teleological" come from? |
The Greek word "telos" meaning order/purpose |
|
Define and explain 2 forms of the argument |
Analogical - Draws links between world's design and objects of human design. Inductive - Universe has regular motion, who put this in place? |
|
Example of regular motion in the universe |
The Earth orbiting the sun |
|
Which Greek philosopher began the design argument and what did he say? |
Plato - "The human body, with all its intricacies, must owe its origin to a greater being, a God". |
|
What Roman thinker had something to say about the design argument? |
Cicero - "God's existence is clear/obvious when we see the enormity and wonder of the skies". |
|
What is a theistic argument? |
An argument that seeks to prove the God of classical theism. |
|
What does the design argument argue? |
That aspects of the universe are so perfectly adapted to fulfil their function, they display evidence of being deliberately designed. This can only be explained by an intelligent/personal designer - God. |
|
What theory does the argument reject in explaining the cause of the universe? |
Chance/coincidence |
|
5 main pieces of evidence that suggest the universe is designed? |
Order, purpose, benefit, suitability for life, appearance. |
|
Describe these pieces of evidence |
Order - Regularities in behaviour of objects and laws Purpose - Objects appear to be working towards an end or purpose Benefit - Orderly structure providing all necessary for life Suitability - Ideal environment provided Appearance - Exhibits beauty suggesting more than survival alone |
|
Describe Aquinas' Fifth Way: Beneficial Order/Purpose |
Beneficial order could not have happened by chance. There must be something directing unintelligent beings. This intelligent director is God. |
|
An example of purpose/beneficial order |
Annual migration of vast pods of grey whales across the ocean to breed. These patterns rarely change and the end result is beneficial so something must be directing them - God. |
|
What does highly empirical mean? |
Draws premisis from observation of nature and the world based on our experience. |
|
Who came up with the analogy of the watch which forms the analogical form of the argument? |
William Paley |
|
Explain the analogy of the watch |
Its intricate design suggests purposeful and intelligent designer of it. Serves also as an analogy of the universe suggesting an intelligent designer - God. |
|
3 supporters of the design argument |
Tennant Swinburne Behe |
|
Swineburne's angle of probability |
Evidence of design and order increases the probability of the existence of God. |
|
Features Swinburne observed that increased the probability of the universe being designed |
Existence of the universe, fact the universe is ordered, existence of consciousness, opportunities to do good, pattern of history, evidence of miracle, religious experience. |
|
Providential nature of the universe |
It contains everything necessary for survival where humans can develop - suggesting God is the designer. |
|
Tennant's aesthetic principle |
The universe possesses natural beauty that goes beyond what is necessary to live which shows the handicraft of God such as the changing colours of the seasons. |
|
Tennant's anthropic principle |
Reason and purpose of the universe is to support human life suggesting it is designed. |
|
Intelligent design |
Feature of the universe and living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not by an undirected process such as natural selection. |
|
Irreducible complexity |
Proposed by Behe. Universe contains biological processes that are so complex, they cannot be broken down into smaller functioning systems as they stop working. They're designed perfectly so a designer must be involved - God. |
|
Critics of the design argument |
Mill, Hume, Dawkins, Darwin |
|
How many criticisms did Hume have? |
5 |
|
Hume's criticisms |
Analogy of the watch is unsound as we have no experience of God designing the universe. Why one God and not many? They may have moved on to bigger and better things. Bad design - suffering. The world is natural so more likely to have grown of its own accord. The world appears ordered because of the way our mind organises our experiences but it isn't. |
|
Dawkin's "Notion Of Purpose" |
Challenges the assumption that the universe has a purpose. It's a human conceit - we assume there is purpose but there is none. |
|
Dawkin's opinion on natural selection |
Natural selection has no purpose in mind - it is the "blind watchmaker". |
|
Mill's dysteleological argument |
Absence of order or poor design in the universe. |
|
Examples of poor design |
Pointless existence of the appendix in humans, pointless existence of wings in flightless birds, genes of DNA that serve no purpose, genetic disorders such as cystic fribrosis. |
|
What does Darwin's theory of evolution do to the design argument and how? |
It destroyed the concept of design as the work of God. It could answer all questions and removed the concept of the mystery of life and origins. |