Chance, Order, Design, and Purpose

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the teleological argument for the existence of God holds that the universe shows signs of order and design; therefore, there must have been a creator. The author puts forward the argument that purpose can only be based on circumstance, and therefore, there is no such thing as presupposed purpose.

From the Paper:

"William Paley's argument for design is famous for the watchmaker analogy. This analogy doesn't really seem to fit, however. A watch is an intricately designed mechanism with a specific purpose, but there is nothing superfluous about it. Every part of the watch is there for a single purpose, to help one tell time. The Earth is clearly not so single-minded. "Millions of species of living forms have lived and perished and this temporary condition applies to inanimate forms as well as to living forms" (Brill 102). Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for millions of years without seeming to have any specific purpose. (Unless we suppose that their purpose was to one day supply human beings with a source for oil). If it was an asteroid impact 65 million years ago that caused the dinosaurs to go extinct, this event can only be couched in terms of incredibly fortunate chance."

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