Evaluation Of The Teleological Argument
Greavu 1
John Greavu
Mark Herr
PHIL 1002
15 October 2012
Evaluation of the Teleological Argument The teleological argument argues that the universe must have had a designer, therefore implying the existence of a Supreme Being. This argument strongly relies on observations of the apparent design and orderly complexity within the universe that has existed long before humans inhabited and affected it. Everything is here for a reason, and everything has a purpose. From these main points, the teleological argument claims that the only way that this is possible is through the existence of a thing that is greater than anything else, God. In Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, David Hume writes that “Whatever exists must have a cause or reason of its existence; it being absolutely impossible for any thing to produce itself, or be the cause of its own existence.” He claims that in going through the causes and reasons of each existing thing that we either have to “go on in tracing in tracing an infinite succession, without any ultimate cause at all”, (which Hume states is “absurd”) or we “must at last have recourse to some ultimate cause, that is necessarily existent” (Hume). Even at the most basic level of life, sub-atomic particles, cannot produce themselves; something is necessary for their existence. Hume then states:
What was it, then, which determined Something to exist rather than Nothing, and bestowed being on a particular possibility, exclusive of the
Greavu 2 rest? External causes, there are supposed to be none. Chance is a word without a meaning. Was it Nothing? But that can never produce any thing.
We must, therefore, have recourse to a necessarily existent Being, who carries the REASON of his existence in himself, and who cannot be supposed not to exist, without an express contradiction. There is, consequently, such a Being; that is, there is a Deity.
One of the biggest opponents to the teleological argument is the work of Charles Darwin. His discovery
John Greavu
Mark Herr
PHIL 1002
15 October 2012
Evaluation of the Teleological Argument The teleological argument argues that the universe must have had a designer, therefore implying the existence of a Supreme Being. This argument strongly relies on observations of the apparent design and orderly complexity within the universe that has existed long before humans inhabited and affected it. Everything is here for a reason, and everything has a purpose. From these main points, the teleological argument claims that the only way that this is possible is through the existence of a thing that is greater than anything else, God. In Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, David Hume writes that “Whatever exists must have a cause or reason of its existence; it being absolutely impossible for any thing to produce itself, or be the cause of its own existence.” He claims that in going through the causes and reasons of each existing thing that we either have to “go on in tracing in tracing an infinite succession, without any ultimate cause at all”, (which Hume states is “absurd”) or we “must at last have recourse to some ultimate cause, that is necessarily existent” (Hume). Even at the most basic level of life, sub-atomic particles, cannot produce themselves; something is necessary for their existence. Hume then states:
What was it, then, which determined Something to exist rather than Nothing, and bestowed being on a particular possibility, exclusive of the
Greavu 2 rest? External causes, there are supposed to be none. Chance is a word without a meaning. Was it Nothing? But that can never produce any thing.
We must, therefore, have recourse to a necessarily existent Being, who carries the REASON of his existence in himself, and who cannot be supposed not to exist, without an express contradiction. There is, consequently, such a Being; that is, there is a Deity.
One of the biggest opponents to the teleological argument is the work of Charles Darwin. His discovery