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Teleological argument (view source)
Revision as of 13:14, November 21, 2019
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[[File:Watches have a purpose.png|thumbnail|400px|William Paley was an advocate of the teleological argument]].
[[File:Watches have a purpose.png|thumbnail|400px|William Paley was an advocate of the teleological argument.
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Often, X is life, but there are other values for which the argument works. For example, scientists have found that if the universal constants (such as the speed of light or the Planck constant) were only a tiny bit different life could not exist.
Often, X is life, but there are other values for which the argument works. For example, scientists have found that if the universal constants (such as the speed of light or the Planck constant) were only a tiny bit different life could not exist.
== William Paley on the watchmaker analogy ==
William Paley was an advocate of the teleological argument
One of the most famous statements about the teleological argument using the watchmaker analogy was given by William Paley in his 1802 book ''Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity''.<ref>[http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/paley/ William Paley - William Carey University]</ref>
William Paley wrote in 1802:
{{Cquote|In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly answer, that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. 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 I had before given, that for anything I knew, the watch might have always been there. ... There must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed [the watch] for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use. ... Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that in a degree which exceeds all computation.<ref>[http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/paley/ William Paley - William Carey University]</ref>}}
== See also ==
== See also ==