The Teleological Argument

1. The TeleologicalArgument Arguments for the Existence of God

2. The Teleological Argument • Any form of the Teleological Argument reasons a posteriori from the apparent order and design of the universe to an intelligent cause: Order and design is the product of mind. • The teleological argument is an argument from probability, not an absolute proof. Other arguments work well with it. • This is one of St. Thomas’ famous Five Ways, or five proofs for God. • From motion to an unmoved first mover. • From causality to a first cause. • From contingent being to an independent being. • From relative being to an absolute being. • From a design to a designer.

3. The Teleological Argument • Plato: Two things that lead people to belief in God • The argument from the existence of the soul. • The argument “from the order of the motion of the stars, and of all things under the dominion of the Mind which ordered the universe” (Laws, 12.966e). • Conclusion: There must be a “best soul” who is the “Maker and Father of all” (Laws, 10.893b-899c).

4. The Teleological argument • Aristotle • If a race of men who always had lived underground were able to escape to see the sky: “When thus they would suddenly gain sight of the earth, seas, and the sky; when they should come to know the grandeur of the clouds and the might of the winds; when they should behold the sun and should learn its grandeur and beauty as well as its power to cause the day by shedding light over the sky; and again, when the night had darkened the lands and they should behold the whole of the sky spangled and adorned with stars; and when they should see the changing lights of the moon as it waxes and wanes, and the risings and settings of all these celestial bodies, their courses fixed and changeless throughout all eternity—when they should behold all these things, most certainly they would have judged both that there exist gods and that all these marvelous works are the handiwork of the gods” (On Philosophy).

5. The teleological argument • King David • “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.Their line [sound] has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world” (Psalm 19:1-4). • The Apostle Paul • “What may be known about God is plain, because God has made it plain. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse(Romans 1:18-20).

6. Teleological Argument • William Paley: • Watch Analogy: God is to the world as a watchmaker is to a watch. • A watch displays function, order, and design. We infer that it must have had a designer. • Likewise, on a much grander scale, the entire world displays function, order, and design. Therefore the world must have had a designer. • David Hume: • But we only live in a tiny part of the universe. How do we know that the whole universe displays function, order, and design? • How do we know from one instance of a universe (the one we live in) that universes in general have certain features, such as function, order, and design?

7. The Teleological Argument • Darwin: • A designer isn’t necessary (in biology) because evolution (through natural selection) can produce all the different plants and animals without a designer. • Intelligent Design Movement • Even if evolution occurred, intelligence still must be involved because of specified complexity of information in DNA, cells, etc. • Intelligent Design proponents claim that they are not advocating a “God of the gaps” theory (that if we can’t explain something, the explanation must be God). Instead, they see positive evidence of design in the structures they are studying.

8. Teleological Argument • Intelligent design is a scientific theory that holds some aspects of life and the universe are best explained by reference to an intelligent cause. Why? Because they contain the type of complexity and information that in our experience comes only from intelligence. • The past 60 years of biology research have uncovered that life is fundamentally based upon: • A vast amount of complex and specified information encoded in a biochemical language; • A computer-like system of commands and codes that processes the information. • Molecular machines and multi-machine systems. • But where in our experience do things like language, complex and specified information, programming code, or machines come from? They have one and only one known source: intelligence. (evolutionnews.org)

9. Teleological Argument • The Argument from the Fine-Tuning of the Universe • The universe is fine-tuned for the existence of human life with such delicacy that it defies comprehension. • Examples of fine-tuning: • The “weak force”, which operates inside the nucleus of an atom, is so finely tuned that to alter its value by even one part out of 10100 would prevent a life-permitting universe. • To alter the “cosmological constant,” which drives the acceleration of the universe’s expansion, by only one part in 10120 would also prevent a life-permitting universe. • To have an accuracy of even one part in 1060 is like firing a bullet to the other side of the observable universe (20 billion light-years away) and hitting a one-inch target.

10. The Fine-Tuning Argument • Premise One: The fine-tuning of the universe is due to either physical necessity, chance, or design. • Premise Two: The fine-tuning is not due to physical necessity or chance. • Conclusion: The fine-tuning is due to design.

11. The Fine-Tuning Argument • Support for Premise Two: The fine-tuning is not due to physical necessity or chance. • Physical Necessity? The most promising candidate for a “theory of everything”, the M-theory, or superstring theory, only works if there are eleven dimensions, but the theory can’t explain why that number of dimensions should exist. Also, M-theory doesn’t predict a life-permitting universe. There is no evidence that life-permitting universes are physically necessary. Life-prohibiting universes are not only possible, but also far more likely than life-permitting universes. • Chance? This is an unreasonable alternative because the chances that the universe that exists should just happen to be life-permitting is very remote. • Lottery illustration: Billions of billions of white ping-pong balls mixed together with one black ping-pong ball. If the one that comes down the chute is black, you are allowed to live; if white, you die. Sure, some ball will be picked, but what are the odds of the black one being picked? And if the black one is picked five times in a row, everyone would recognize it didn’t happen by chance.

12. The Fine-Tuning Argument • Premise One: The fine-tuning of the universe is due to either physical necessity, chance, or design. • Premise Two: The fine-tuning is not due to physical necessity or chance. • Conclusion: The fine-tuning is due to design.