Thomas Aquinas was a famous Italian priest from the time of the twelve hundreds, with his own version of the design argument. Aquinas' design argument was described in the five ways, which his cosmological argument was also described within this.
In his final way he speaks of the observable universe and the order of nature. Aquinas then states that it is our common sense that tells us that the universe works in such a way, so one is supposed to end with a conclusion that it was designed by an intelligent designer who is supposed to be god.In other words, all physical laws and the order of nature and life were designed and ordered by an intelligent designer. His argument shares links in with Aristotle's cosmological argument. Thomas Aquinas is saying that while human beings do exist and think for themselves, the reason why humans exist is due to an uncaused causer which made the natural laws needed for our existence. Aquinas talked about nature seeming to have order and purpose to it, he also sujested that nothing with no sign of life is purposeful, without the help of a "guiding hand" sujesting a creator.
He used and example of an archer shooting and arrow at a target as a small analogy for this. So everything in nature which is moving but has no intelligence has to be directed by god. Aquinas claimed that there is order and purpose in the world, but he said that objects which are inanimate(lifeless such the planets), could not have been ordered themselves, as they do not have any intelligence with which to make the plans or patterns. So they are said to been given an order by being with intelligence (possibly sujesting god). Aquinas' Argument begins with the empirical observation of the design and order of the universe.That is why, this argument is an a posteriori argument, and the conclusion is not supposed to be fully certain.
So Aquinas' design argument here is basically suggesting that inanimate objects (like planets), could not have ordered themselves (so for exmaple the planets got themselves into the orbits they have), because they lack the intelligence to do so. But due to the planets being aligned so perfectly, this means it must have been done so by a being with the intelligence to do so. Although humans are intelligent, they cannot move planets etc, so that leaves us with God (who Aquinas believed could).Aquinas and his own form of the teleological argument shown in the fifth of his five ways, “the way of design”.
He showed that the way in which ‘Natural Bodies’ act in a regular trend to accomplish their end shows the evidence for the existence of a higher intelligent being which he called God. He argued that whatever object did not have knowledge ment that they cannot move towards an end unless something else is directing it that has intelligence. This is used in his example of the arrow and the archer. With this analogy the arrow is directed by the archer, meaning that some intelligent being exists that directs things to their end.So in the same way that the archer directs the arrow, a human is directing everything with its intelligence whichAquinas would call god. Another important point Aquinas argued was that the overall clear order and regularity in the world offered enough proof of a designer.
When you look at the natural world you can see that everything in it follows natural laws, even if the things are not really conscious, thinking etc. This would mean If things follow natural laws they tend to do well and have some goal or purpose.However, if something cannot think for itself then it does not have any goal or purpose unless it is directed by something that is a thinker (sujesting god) Again the exmaple of an arrow it can only be directed to its goal or target and used for its purpose by someone, such as an archer. It needs some external intelligent thing acting upon it to direct it towards its goals, aims or purpose in the same way of the universe and everthing in it that cannot think for itself needs a being (God) to think for it to help direct it.
So the logical conclusion is that this observable ‘design’ must have been the result of a creator.
