Transcript Lecture 16: The Teleological Argument and Causality

LECTURE 17: THE
TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT AND
CAUSALITY
In Today’s Lecture we will:
1. Continue our investigation into the philosophy of religion
2. Consider another a posteriori argument for the existence of God: The
Teleological Argument
3. Discuss and critique a variation of the teleological argument: Paley’s
Watch Analogy
4. Investigate Kant and Hume’s criticisms of the teleological and cosmological
arguments for God’s existence
TODAY’S LECTURE
THE TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Key Features of the Teleological Argument:
Argues that the universe must have had an intelligent creator
Teleological/Telos is Greek for purpose or design
o Begins with an a posteriori observation
o Both Paley and Aquinas use observation, logic and analogy to make the
case for an intelligent creator
o Aquinas uses the analogy of an arrow in his argument
o Paley uses the analogy of a watchmaker in his argument
o Intelligent design argues that we need some idea of intelligent causes to
explain complex biological features of the world
o Theistic evolution attempts to reconcile the theory of evolution with the
idea that God created the world
TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Version 1: Aquinas
We see that things which lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act for
an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in
the same way, so as to obtain the best result. Hence it is plain that not
fortuitously, but designedly, do they achieve their end. Now whatever
lacks intelligence cannot move toward an end, unless it be directed by
some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is
shot to its mark by the archer. Therefore some intelligent being exists by
whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call
God.
-Thomas Aquinas, pp. 254-255-
THE TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Version 2: Paley’s Watch Analogy (pp.260-262)
The world is to God as a watch is to a watchmaker
Suppose you are walking through a field and you accidentally find a watch
The watch’s function is to keep time by means of cogs and other intricate
components.
But where did the watch come from?
o It is unlikely that it just accidentally appeared from nowhere (it is too
complicated)
o The watch must have been made by a watchmaker
By analogy, Paley argues:
o Nature is more complicated than a watch
o Therefore the universe must have been made by an
intelligent creator; god
TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Version 3: Intelligent Design (p.265)
Intelligent causes are necessary to explain complex biological structures
1. There is a fundamental distinction between undirected natural causes and
intelligent causes
2. Intelligent causes can do things which undirected natural causes cannot
3. Intelligent causes can be empirically detected and distinguished from
undirected natural causes
4. Information underlies all intelligent causes
5. Therefore, where there is information there is intelligence
6. Intelligent design traces pathways of intelligence back to their origin
7. Intelligent design limits itself to detecting intelligence without stating what
that intelligence is
TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Version 4: Theistic Evolution (pp. 264- 268)
Is the theory of evolution compatible with the concept of God?
o Darwin showed that the existence of complex biological systems can be
explained by his theory of evolution
o According to the theory of evolution; complex biological systems are the
result of a long process of gradual modifications brought about by
Natural Selection
o Some thinkers (E.g. Dawkins) argue that the theory of evolution and God
are incompatible
o Evolution appears to suggest that we can have complexity without an
intelligent designer (Contra Paley)
o Evolution challenges the Biblical view that Humans and all the creatures
of the Earth were formed in seven days
TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Version 4: Theistic Evolution (Cont.)
Is the theory of evolution compatible with the concept of God?
o Theologians (such as F.R. Tennant) argue that the theory of evolution and
God are compatible
o The fact that complex organisms are the result of a long process of
gradual modifications does not preclude the idea of design
o Therefore, evolution does not prove that God did not create the universe
o Tennant suggests that Humans are the pinnacle of the evolutionary
‘ladder’
o The theory of evolution therefore appears to have an end or purpose
(wider teleology) beyond mere mechanical natural processes
o The theory of evolution is therefore fully compatible with the concept of
God
TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
CAUSATION
The attack on Causality
The cosmological and teleological arguments both rely on the concept of
causality
Cosmological argument
If every event has a cause there must be a first cause
Teleological argument
If there is complexity/purpose there must be an intelligent cause
In both arguments God is used as a transcendent (outside of time and space)
first cause
CAUSATION
Criticisms against the teleological and cosmological argument
David Hume (pp. 270-271)
Is there any need for a beginning of a series of causes?
It cannot be proved a priori that every event has a cause
Suggests that the concepts of beginning, middle, end may be entirely
human: we can always imagine an earlier event
Unless we observe or experience anything to the contrary; we cannot claim
that the world has a first cause or an external cause
Both arguments felicitously apply the concept of causation to the concept
of God
See Hume, David. Dialogues concerning Natural Religion (New York: Hafner, 1960)
CAUSATION
Criticisms against the teleological and cosmological argument
Immanuel Kant (pp.272-273)
Both arguments mistakenly extend the concept of causality beyond its valid
sphere
Kant views the concept of causality as a necessary feature of human
experience
But! causality only applies to the world of the senses; both arguments
fallaciously try to extend this concept beyond its valid realm
We cannot claim that an infinite series of causes is impossible; we cannot
make this claim from experience or extend this principle beyond
experience
The concept of causality cannot apply to God
CAUSATION