Paley’s teleological argument for the existence of God consisted of a famous analogy of an ‘old fashioned’ mechanical watch, with a complex movement of cogs, wheels and springs, rather than the modern quartz watch. Paley said that it is not rational to presume that a watch would appear without the agency of a watchmaker (in this instance). The same scheme is suggesting that a universe can not materialize without an agency such as God.This argument could very well be applied to all sorts of situations, in comparison with natural and man made items.
For example, the human eye, is compared to a highly sophisticated automatic focus camera, the eye is designed to fulfil its purpose, which is to see. The foundation of Paley’s argument for the existence of God is that all things in the universe have been designed to fulfil its purpose, this argument is known as Design qua Purpose, which means that the Universe appears to behave according to some kind of order or rule; consequently Paley argues that there is a need for an Intelligent Designer.In addition to his argument, Paley also says that there is further evidence to support his statements, by saying that there is further evidence for a Creator God in the regularity of the Universe. The universe, the planets, and the effect of gravity are just right; this could not happen without an intelligent design, therefore God.
However there are some criticisms and questions to this teleological argument, for instance this is human superiority, it is basically putting ‘humans’ ‘us’ in a privileged position; therefore Paley’s argument fails as evidence for an Intelligent Designer.“Darwinism shows that Paley’s argument is false” DiscussCharles Darwin was orthodox early in his life, and he does mention this in his autobiography that during that time he did not least doubt the strict and literal truth of each and every word in the Bible. Charles Darwin also said that since natural selection has been discovered, Paley’s teleological argument for the existence of God completely fails.For example in a Darwinian explanation, taking an animal such as fish, they have round eyes today but in the past, they would have had an oval shape variety of eyes which could only see vaguely and this was not enough to avoid themselves from being eaten by other sea predators.
Therefore fish have adapted in order to survive in their habitat; ‘tailored’ to see under water and this was done in a process of natural selection and not by some intelligent design.
