Teleological Argument Essay

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The teleological argument, or the argument from design, is an argument that focuses on proving the existence of God. The word “teleological” is derived from the Greek word telos, meaning goals, ends, or purposes (lecture). When an argument such as this states that the universe is “ordered,” it is stating that it was created with an order to have some sort of end or purpose. It essentially is saying that it is more reasonable to think that the universe is the way that it is because an intelligent designer created it with a purpose. The argument can be broken down to several premises and a single conclusion. The first premise of the argument states that, the world that we live in is surrounded by natural phenomena and within each of these phenomena…show more content…
Each artifact was created by an intelligent human designer in order to complete a unique purpose. For example, the springs and gears in a watch have the function of moving the minute and hour hands of the watch with the purpose of keeping time. Premises 3 through 6 state that natural phenomena are not the creation of humans. Natural phenomena that exhibit teleological order can only be explained as the creation of a non-human designer. If only a non-human designer can create natural phenomena, then that designer must be God. Thus, we are led to this single conclusion: if that non-human designer can only be God, then God must…show more content…
One cannot simply analogize two separate things such as the natural world and a simply human artifact. Philosopher David Hume stated that, “The exact similarity of the cases gives us a perfect assurance of a similar event; and a stronger evidence is never desired nor sought after. But wherever you depart, in the least, from the similarity of the cases, you diminish proportionably the evidence; and may at last bring it to a very weak analogy, which is confessedly liable to error and uncertainty” (Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religions). Comparing something like the universe to a watch is like comparing apples to oranges. The two are completely unrelated to one
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