Teleological Arguments

1. Teleological Arguments Arguments from Design

2. Teleological • Telos – Greek root meaning “purpose or end” • Romans 1:20 • Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.

3. The Argument • P1 – Where there is design, there must be a designer • P2 – We can detect design throughout the universe • C – Therefore, the universe must have a designer

4. History of the Argument • Aristotle • Thomas Aquinas • William Paley • The Watchmaker Argument

5. Paley’s Natural Theology (1802) • "In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly answer, that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer I had before given, that for anything I knew, the watch might have always been there. (...) There must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed [the watch] for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use. (...) Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that in a degree which exceeds all computation."

6. The Skeptic’s Objection • P2 – Things may appear to be designed but they are not • It is possible that chance is why things appear designed • They also object that a designer is still unexplained

7. Objections • David Hume • Immanuel Kant • Charles Darwin

8. Charles Darwin • British • HMS Beagle • The Origin of Species • The Descent of Man

9. Natural Selection • “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” • Richard Dawkins

10. Detecting Design • William Dembski, The Design Inference • Specified complexity • A legitimate scientific pursuit is design detection • Forensics, archaeology, SETI • Probability

11. Specified Complexity • The joint properties of "high complexity and specification" invariably result from intelligent causes, not chance or physical-chemical necessity

12. Dembski’s Method for Detecting Design

13. Fine-Tuning • There was required a delicate and complex balance of initial conditions present in the big bang in order for life to even be possible • Constants in nature • Physical quantities

14. Nature’s Constants • Laws of nature expressed mathematically • Gravity • Electromagnetic force • Subatomic “weak” force

15. Arbitrary Quantities • Quantities of things present at the big bang – amount of thermodynamic disorder

16. Biochemistry • Michael Behe • Darwin’s Black Box • “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” – Charles Darwin

17. The Complexity of the Cell • 19th century biologists believed cells were merely “homogenous globules of plasma” • During the last half of the twentieth century, advances in molecular biology and biochemistry have revolutionized our understanding of the miniature world within the cell. Research has revealed that cells--the fundamental units of life--store, transmit, and edit information and use that information to regulate their most fundamental metabolic processes.

18. The Mousetrap Analogy • “Irreducible Complexity” • The Mousetrap Analogy or Principle • “Irreducibly complex systems appear to me to be very difficult to explain within a traditional gradualistic Darwinian framework, because the function of the system only appears when the system is essentially complete.” • Michael Behe

19. The Bacterial Flagellum • Behe lists the bacterial flagellum as an irreducibly complex molecular machine • Cilium

20. Dogmatic Darwinists • Before Darwin’s Black Box, Behe was in good standing at Lehigh University • Today Behe’s colleagues have an official statement denouncing his ideas • He is no longer allowed to supervise PhD candidates

21. Biological Information • Stephen Meyer • DNA and other information systems could not

22. Astronomy • Jay W. Richards and Guillermo Gonzalez • The Privileged Planet • The Galactic Habitable Zone • The Earth is located in the only part of the galaxy that allows us to make scientific observations

23. Dogmatic Darwinists • Prior to The Privileged Planet, Gonzalez was a research professor at Iowa State University • Soon after the book was release, Gonzalez was denied tenure despite an accomplished academic record

24. Richard Dawkins • “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose”

25. Weaknesses of the Argument • All we can infer is an Intelligent Designer – A Being(s) that designed parts of the physical universe • Not creationism • Inductive or a posteriori method of inquiry • Same data can be interpreted in the opposite way

26. Video Resources • Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed • The Case for the Creator (Illustra) • Unlocking the Mystery of Life (Illustra) • Darwin’s Dilemma (Illustra) • The Privileged Planet (Illustra)

27. Print Resources • The Privileged Planet, Jay W. Richards & Guillermo Gonzalez • Signature in the Cell, Stephen Meyer • Darwin’s Black Box, Michael Behe • The Design Inference, William Dembski • Darwin on Trial, Phillip Johnson • Intelligent Design, William Dembski • The Case for a Creator, Lee Strobel

28. Christian Scientists • John Polkinghorne • Francis Collins • The Human Genome Project