The Argument from Design
By L. R. R.
The design argument is formally called the teleological argument. The word Telos in Greek means, meaning, purpose or ultimate end. Quite simply, it states that a designer must exist since the universe and living things exhibit marks of design in their order, consistency, unity, and pattern. Historically, the design argument actually predate Christianity. Ancient Greeks such as Plato and Aristotle argued for the existent of a supernatural Being based on their observations of the celestial body.
In his unforgettable book Natural Theology, William Paley used an analogy to make his point that an intelligent designer exist. A typical analogy of this is the Watchmaker Argument Watchmaker Argument.
“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 which I had before given,–that, for anything I knoew, the watch might have always been there. Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for the stone?…For this reason, and for no other, viz,. that, when we come to inspect the watch we perceive (what we could not discover in the stone) that its several parts are famed put together for a purpose….[Description of watch omitted.] This mechanism being observed… the inference, we think, is inevitalbe, that the watch must have had a maker….who comprehended its construction, and designed its use.”
Paley’s Argument can be summarized as follows:
- Human artifacts are products of intelligent design.
- The universe resembles human artifacts.
- Therefore the universe is a product of intelligent design.
- But the universe is complex and gigantic, in comparison to human artifacts.
- Therefore, there probably is a powerful and vastly intelligent designer who created the universe.
We must bare in mind that the argument from design is far from foolproof. For instance, the notion that the universe is designed is pretty much subjective. Different observations in the natural world can produce different theories to account for their existence. Also, this argument is built upon an analogy. If we find things in the universe that are chaotic, then by analogy, that would imply there is no designer. So teleological argument, as such can only best explained as a highly probable but not 100 percent certain argument for the existence of God.
Although the argument from design is far from perfect, it it however eminently logical. But evolutionists would object against the idea of an intelligent designer by, for example, the ice crystal formation of sophistication that comes randomly i.e. design without a designer. Does this objection be extrapolated to organic life? Frank J. Sherwin a Zoologist gives his insiteful comment,
“Although ice crystal do follow the law of physics and chemistry giving repeated order (that is, they are formed from vapor in which the water molecules are oriented and moving according to random process), they do not convey any information. An ice crystal is composed of water, whereas something like enzyme (a large protein molecule) is composed of hundreds of stragically placed amino acid molecules. No so an ice crystal, which is simply a repeated order of identical water molecules1.
Source
1 The Big Arguments: Does God Exist? Master Books, p.74
