Foundations - Exam This unit is assessed by an external examination of 1 hour and 45 minutes. Candidates must answer three questions from a choice of 18. They must study at least two of the nine areas within this unit. All the questions set for this unit require extended writing. The total number of marks allocated for each question is 30. The total number of marks allocated in this unit is 90.

How it is marked? AO1 AO2 Select and demonstrate clearly relevant knowledge and understanding through the use of evidence, examples and correct language and terminology appropriate to the course of study. In addition, for synoptic assessment, Advanced GCE students should demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the connections between different elements of their course of study. Critically evaluate and justify a point of view through the use of evidence and reasoned argument. In addition, for synoptic assessment, Advanced GCE students should relate elements of their course of study to their broader context and to specified aspects of human experience 70% 30%

Area A – Philosophy of Religion Students may answer with reference to any religious or non- religious stance, provided the material is relevant to the question. 1  A study of philosophical arguments about the existence of God: - Design — key ideas, strengths and weaknesses Cosmological — key ideas, strengths and weaknesses. 2  A study of selected problems in the philosophy of religion:  Problems of evil and suffering, different types of problems and solutions  A study of philosophical debates about miracles: concepts of miracle; reasons to believe in miracles; philosophical problems with reference to Hume.

Area B - Ethics 1 A study of ethical concepts: The relationship between religion and morality Utilitarianism Situation ethics. 2  A study of ethical dilemmas: Issues of war and peace Sexual ethics.

Detailed specification – design argument Design — key ideas, strengths and weaknesses The specifcation does not name or identify any particular version of the design argument and students will be credited with any version(s) relevant to the question. Notable examples may include Aquinas, Paley, Tennant, Swinburne. Key ideas may include its empirical basis, interpretation of experience, role of analogy regarding cause and effect, cumulative effect of evidence, and notions of ‘God’ in this argument. Knowledge of these key concepts will be supplemented with an understanding and evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses. Students should be able to identify these features and make informed judgements about the merits, or otherwise, of these strengths and weaknesses. For example, material from Hume, Mill, Kant, Darwin, Dawkins, including alternative interpretations, is appropriate.

The Design Argument Explaining order and design Aquinas’ Fifth Way (Design qua regularity) William Paley’s analogical argument (Design qua purpose) Arguments from probability and providence (Swinburne) The aesthetic argument The anthropic principle (Tennant) Intelligent design (Behe)

Aquinas 5th way – Design qua regularity In Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas sets out Five Ways in which he thought he could demonstrate that God exists. The last of the Five Ways is a form of design argument. When you look at the natural world you can see that everything in it follows natural laws, even if the things are not conscious, thinking beings. If things follow natural laws they tend to do well and have some goal or purpose. However, if a thing cannot think for itself it does not have any goal or purpose unless it is directed by something that thinks: Take an arrow as an example. It can only be directed to its goal and used for its purpose by someone, such as an archer. Conclusion: Everything in the natural world that does not think for itself heads towards its goal or purpose because it is directed by someone which does think. That something we call “God”.

Annual migration of vast pods of grey whales from subarctic feeding grounds off the Alaskan coast to their Mexico breeding grounds- journey of 20,000km – taking 3 months. End is beneficial – non rational beings working toward a goal. Must be someone directing them.

Weaknesses in Aquinas’ argument. It is very important to note the assumptions that Aquinas makes in his argument, as he does not provide evidence to support them: Aquinas assumes that things in the natural world have some purpose and are aimed at some goal. He never provides examples to back this up. However, in a separate book called On the Truth in which he discusses God’s providence. Is it correct to assume that everything follows a general law set down by a designer? Some people would say that the natural world is just the way it is. Anthony Flew suggests that Aquinas’s claim that things in nature are directed to some purpose goes against the available evidence. (Natural Selection?)   Richard Swinburne has pointed out that Aquinas’ argument is not entirely satisfactory as it states that “Everything in the natural world that does not think for itself heads towards its goal or purpose because it is directed by something which does think.” (Swinburne, “The Argument from Design”).

Weaknesses in Aquinas’ argument Empirical A posteriori argument

William Paley – design qua purpose Paley’s Watch “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 enquired how the watch happened to be in that place, I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given…Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for the stone; why is it not admissable in the second case as in the first? For this reason, and for no other: namely, that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive – what we could not discover in the stone – that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose. E.g. that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion is so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that if the parts had been differently shaped from what they are, placed after any other manner or in any other order than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it.”

William Paley – design qua purpose William Paley argued that the natural word was full of apparent examples of design. His most famous argument compares a rock and a watch. It comprises of two parts: Part 1 Paley suggested that if you went for a walk and found a rock, you could conclude that it had been there forever and not think any more about it. Whereas if you found a watch (an old fashioned watch with cogs and springs) you could examine it and find that it had moving parts which demonstrate that: The watch was for a purpose: telling the time The parts work together or are fit for a purpose. The parts are ordered and put together in a certain way to make the watch function. If the parts are arranged in a different way the watch does not work, i.e. it does not fulfil its purpose. Conclusion: The watch had a maker who “Must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehend its construction and designed its use.” (Paley, Natural Theology)

William Paley – design qua purpose Part 2 Paley continues with his watch analogy Suppose the watch had another imaginary function; that of producing other watches. If this were the case, your admiration for the watchmaker would be increased. Conclusion: Any person finding such a watch would conclude that the design of the watch implies “the presence of intelligence and mind” (Paley, Natural Theology)  Paley argued that just as the watch being designed necessitates a designer to explain why it exists, so all of nature requires a much greater designer. Paley pointed out that the complexity of nature is far greater than any grand machine human beings can make. Thus the whole of nature requires a grand designer and that designer is God. In simple terms: A watch is a machine designed for the purpose of telling the time (an effect) The features of design in the watch suggest an intelligent design (a cause) The natural world and, in fact all of the universe show features of design (an effect) Conclusion: Therefore, the universe must have an intelligent designer.

Modern versions of teleological argument: F. R Modern versions of teleological argument: F.R. Tennant – Anthropic principle F.R. Tennant in Philosophical Theology (1930) suggested a view which has become known as the Anthropic Principle. This argues that the world is so precisely balanced to produce the environment for man that it must surely have been planned. Had earth been close to or further from the sun, had the elements been different, had things not been just so, then our lives would not have been possible. The chances of our lives occurring in such a well-adapted world are so infinitely small that it must have been planned.

Modern versions of teleological argument: Swinburne - probabilities Swinburne accepted the Anthropic Principle and that the universe is law-governed. He recognized that the universe could just easily have been chaotic. The fact that it is not suggests design rather than chance. Swinburne considered that it came down to probabilities. Which is the most probable reason for order in the universe, random chance or design? The sheer complexity of the universe makes it unlikely that the universe would just ‘happen’ to be the way it is, so Swinburne accepted that it is more probable that there is design. If there is design, then he concluded that God is the simplest explanation. Think – Ockham’s razor

Criticisms of design argument Hume Epicurean Hypothesis Mill Kant Darwin Dawkins

Hume See sheet

Epicurean Hypothesis The Epicurean Hypothesis argued that, at the time of creation, the universe consisted of particles in random motion. This initial state was chaotic, but gradually the natural forces evolved into an ordered system. The universe is eternal and, in this unlimited time, it was inevitable that a constantly ordered state would develop. The stability and order is not the result of a divine designer but of random particles coming together through time to form the current stable universe.

Mill Evidence of evil in the world doesn’t point to the God of classical theism. Think problem of evil – if God is not one of the following: omnipotent / omnibenevolent / omniscient - then God is not the God of Christianity. Parasitic wasp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMG-LWyNcAs

Kant A designer relies on regularity, purpose and order in the world. Our minds enable us to see order in chaos.

Darwin On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Survival of the fittest Peppered moths

Dawkins The God Delusion Natural selection gives the appearance of design.

Response Michael Behe Bacterial flagellum

2016 i) Examine the importance of experience and analogy for understanding the design argument (21) Ii) Comment on the view that experience and analogy are the weakest features of the design argument. (9)

2015 Examine the key strengths of the design argument. (21) Comment on the claim that these strengths can withstand criticisms against them.

2014 Examine three key ideas of the design argument for the existence of God. (21) Comment on the claim that these three ideas are all equally weak. (9)

2013 i) Examine the key strengths of the design argument for the existence of God. (21) ii) Comment on the view that this is a compelling argument for the existence of God. (9)

Jan 2013 i) Examine the prominent features of the design argument fro the existence of God. Ii) Comment on the view that the design argument provides a coherent explanation of the universe.