The Design Argument For the existence of God See teacher notes in subsequent slides.

The Design Argument Learning Objectives: To understand Willliam Paley’s Watch Analogy; To be able to explain counter arguments to this; To give your own assessment of this argument. For the existence of God

The Design Argument Hummingbird Task: For each of the following slides explain how parts of the body perform a function. Four slides of living things. Exercise: Ask pupils to make notes on parts of the body/plant that perform a particular function and do the hummingbird as an example. So, they write ‘hummingbird’ and something like ‘long beak to reach nectar inside elongated flowers; wings with feathers to help it manoeuvre; eyes to give it vision’. Could mention internal organs or adaptation to environment (lungs for air, gills for water). They must list at least three for each slide. E.g. the hummingbird has a long beak that enables drinking nectar from long flowers. It has feathers that allow flight; eyes that allow sight; lungs for breathing; a heart to carry oxygen to its body cells via the blood vessels.

The Design Argument Boxfish

The Design Argument Crocus

The Design Argument Bombardier Beetle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U-1kPbvj8Q Bombardier Beetle

The Design Argument Bombardier Beetle This beetle has different chemicals stored in resistant chambers of its body. When they are mixed it causes a violent reaction that only the beetle can withstand. The insides of a bombardier beetle mix two chemicals to produce an exothermic reaction. The internal parts have separate resistant chambers which can withstand the chemicals and the heat of the reaction. The chemical in the reservoir is mixed with the one excreted at E in the vestibule before being squirted out. Bombardier Beetle

The Design Argument Jesus Christ Lizard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45yabrnryXk This creature is ace! The video clips are about two minutes each. Then go back to the box fish slide and go through answers. Main point: creatures whether animals or plants are a very complex biological arrangement of organs and parts, all of which are needed to function. Even tiny insects have blood filtration system, internal organs, breathing apparatus, eyes, hearing, digestive system etc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1vwHvR9jT0 Jesus Christ Lizard

Plants and animals are incredibly complicated Plants and animals are incredibly complicated. They each have many different body parts and organs that perform all sorts of tasks. Each part is vital; if you take just one part away the creature dies. Believers argue that it is ridiculously unlikely that all of these very complicated creatures came about by accident; there must be an intelligent being who designed all of this.

The Design Argument Human Eye Even just one organ – the human eye – has many parts that must all fit together perfectly or the human would be blind, even down to having the right type of light-sensitive chemicals in the retina. Here is just one of the many organs of the body of one animal (us). The many parts of the eye are all needed for it to function properly. The retina contains photosensitive chemicals without which we would be blind. Every part of the eye is needed for it to function. Human Eye

The Design Argument William Paley wrote a book called Natural Theology in 1802. About the time that new scientific discoveries were being made in the study of the eye William Paley (an Anglican theologian from Yorkshire) wrote the book Natural Theology. In it he put together the following argument.

The Design Argument He asked his readers to imagine they were on a walk in the countryside in a field. William Paley Natural Theology 1802

The Design Argument You hit your foot against a stone. You don’t think anything of it because a stone is a simple thing with no particular purpose. William Paley Natural Theology 1802 Imagine you were walking through a heath and you found a rock. You would not think anything of it; it’s very simple and uncomplicated.

However, you then see a pocket watch in the field However, you then see a pocket watch in the field. You wonder how it got there because it is a very complicated thing with many parts that have to fit together for the watch to work. If you take out just one small cog the whole thing will stop working. The Design Argument William Paley Natural Theology 1802 However, if you found a pocket watch on the heath you would not think it came into being by accident. All of the cogs and other parts of the watch fit together perfectly and function together as a unit. If you remove just one small cog the whole thing will not work. It obviously has a designer and has been made on purpose not by accident.

The pocket watch obviously has a designer The pocket watch obviously has a designer. No sensible person would argue with that. William Paley then argued that animals and plants are extremely complicated with many parts like a watch has. Why, then, would we not think that they too have a designer, a type of supremely intelligent being? The Design Argument William Paley Natural Theology 1802 However, if you found a pocket watch on the heath you would not think it came into being by accident. All of the cogs and other parts of the watch fit together perfectly and function together as a unit. If you remove just one small cog the whole thing will not work. It obviously has a designer and has been made on purpose not by accident.

The Design Argument This is called … Paley argued that this designer is what we call God. He believed that there has to be a god because it’s just too unlikely that animals and plants just happened accidentally by natural causes. The Design Argument This is called … William Paley Natural Theology 1802 However, if you found a pocket watch on the heath you would not think it came into being by accident. All of the cogs and other parts of the watch fit together perfectly and function together as a unit. If you remove just one small cog the whole thing will not work. It obviously has a designer and has been made on purpose not by accident.

The Design Argument William Paley’s Watch Argument Natural Theology 1802 In the same way, he argues that nature is far too intricate and complex to be the result of unintended natural processes; there must logically be a designer who has made all of these things, i.e. God. This is the Design Argument for the existence of God (also called the Teleological Argument). Pupils note this down. Paley is not the first person to come up with this type of argument (Isaac Newton is said to have had a similar one and the idea was around centuries before him) but Paley is famous for the pocket watch version of it.

Challenges to the Design Argument Here I give them a paired activity. One partner has a text on Mill’s challenge, the other has a sheet on the challenge of evolution. Each partner silently reads the first two paragraphs and summarises in his/her own words in exercise books. Then they share answers with each other and make notes on each other’s. Extension: Make notes on the counter argument to each challenge. More difficult version: Give pupils a sample of Mill’s/Darwin’s original text and ask them to summarise in their own words. John Stuart Mill 1806-73

Challenges to the Design Argument John Stuart Mill Mill argued that there is much cruelty in nature, such as when a cat plays with a mouse, torturing it before killing it. Animals prey on one another brutally in the wild. On a summer’s evening you can see many thousands of insects all destined to die after a short life of suffering. Mill questions how a good God could design that. Mill argued that if there was a designer he must be cruel because of the cruelty in nature. A cat naturally enjoys inflicting pain on a mouse.

Challenges to the Design Argument Charles Darwin The Origin of Species 1859

Challenges to the Design Argument Darwin’s Theory of Evolution provides a way to explain the development of complex creatures with reference to their being a designer God. (Counter-counter arguments include against Mill, that the Fall in Genesis 3 explains why imperfection and suffering have come into the world; against evolutionary atheism, that evolution does not remove the possibility of God’s existence; it is a means by which God operates to create things. Darwin himself was an agnostic.) Darwin’s Theory of Evolution provided an explanation of life that did not necessarily require a god to exist. Charles Darwin The Origin of Species 1859

The Design Argument Final Task: Answer the following question: ‘The Design Argument proves that God must really exist.’ Do you agree? Give reasons for your view.