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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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== William Paley on the watchmaker analogy ==

== William Paley on the watchmaker analogy ==

William Paley:

William Paley was an advocate of the teleological argument

{{Quote|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.&nbsp;... 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.&nbsp;... 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. |William Paley|Natural Theology (1802)}}

 

 

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.&nbsp;... 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.&nbsp;... 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 ==