William Paley (1743-1805)

William Paley

Design must have had a Designer

"If we received a single intelligent signal containing information from space then we would conclude that there is intelligent life out there. Each cell in the human body contains more information than in all thirty volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It's certainly reasonable to make the inference that this isn't the random product of unguided nature, but it's the unmistakable sign of an Intelligent Designer."
Walter Bradley, quoted in The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel, p110
(The human genome, has 80,000 genes arranged in 3 billion DNA molecule pairs.)

Another modern version of Paley's watch is the 'Anthropic Principle', the fact that the physical constants of the universe are 'just right' to support life - the universe 'appears' designed to support life. In other words the universe is not just the result of chance.

Another example is the "irreducible complexity" of structures at a molecular level demonstrated by Michael Behe.

"We distinguish between intelligent and natural causes every day--every time a detective investigates a possible homicide, every time an archaeologist picks out an arrowhead from a pile of rocks, every time radio astronomers at the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence listen for patterns in the noise coming from outer space. In these cases, modern science doesn’t have a problem assuming some intelligent being is responsible for the evidence--a human, even an alien. But if you try to distinguish between intelligent and natural causes in basic biological systems, things get a little messier. If you find intelligence in biology, then who or what was the intelligent designer? It’s a question science doesn’t want to pose, let alone answer." Lauren Kern Houston Press December 14, 2000

Intelligent Design begins with the observation that intelligent causes can do things which undirected natural causes cannot. Undirected natural causes can place scrabble pieces on a board, but cannot arrange the pieces as meaningful words or sentences. To obtain a meaningful arrangement requires an intelligent cause. This intuition, that there is a fundamental distinction between undirected natural causes on the one hand and intelligent causes on the other, has underlain the design arguments of past centuries. William Dembski

Biography

Born in July 1743, in Peterborough, England, William Paley trained for the Anglican priesthood, graduating from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1763. He was appointed a fellow and tutor of his college in 1766, and rose through the ranks of the Anglican Church. He died on May 25, 1805.

Paley wrote several books on philosophy and Christianity, which proved extremely influential. His 1794 book A View of the Evidence of Christianity was required reading at Cambridge University until the 20th century. His most influential contribution to biological thought, however, was his book Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature, first published in 1802. In this book, Paley laid out a full exposition of natural theology, the belief that the nature of God could be understood by reference to His creation, the natural world. He introduced one of the most famous metaphors in the philosophy of science, the image of the watchmaker: . . .

when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive. . . 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 so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, or 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. . . . the inference we think is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker -- that there 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 comprehended its construction and designed its use.

Living organisms, Paley argued, are even more complicated than watches, "in a degree which exceeds all computation." How else to account for the often amazing adaptations of aniamls and plants? Only an intelligent Designer could have created them, just as only an intelligent watchmaker can make a watch:

The marks of design are too strong to be got over. Design must have had a designer. That designer must have been a person. That person is GOD.

Quoted from William Paley (1743-1805)

Teleology.

teleology (from Greek telos, "end"; logos, "reason"), explanation by reference to some purpose or end; also described as final causality, in contrast with explanation by efficient causes only. Human conduct, insofar as it is rational, is generally explained with reference to ends pursued or alleged to be pursued; and human thought tends to explain the behaviour of other things in nature on this analogy, either as of themselves pursuing ends, or as designed to fulfill a purpose devised by a mind transcending nature. The most celebrated account of teleology was that given by Aristotle when he declared that a full explanation of anything must consider not only the material, the formal, and the efficient causes, but also the final cause--the purpose for which the thing exists or was produced.

Teleology is based on the proposition that the universe has design and purpose. In Aristotelian philosophy, the explanation of, or justification for, a phenomenon or process is to be found not only in the immediate purpose or cause, but also in the "final cause"—the reason for which the phenomenon exists or was created. In Christian theology, teleology represents a basic argument for the existence of God, in that the order and efficiency of the natural world seem not to be accidental. If the world's design is intelligent, an ultimate Designer must exist. source

With the rise of modern science in the 16th and 17th centuries, interest was directed to mechanistic explanations of natural phenomena, which appeal only to efficient causes; if teleological explanations were used, they took the form not of saying (as in Aristotelian teleology) that things develop toward the realization of ends internal to their own natures but of viewing even biological organisms as machines ingeniously devised by an intelligent being. In the 18th century, William Paley, a Protestant apologist, gave classic expression to this kind of teleology.

Immanuel Kant's Kritik der Urtheilskraft (1790; Critique of Judgment) dealt at length with teleology. While acknowledging--and indeed exulting in--the wondrous appointments of nature, Kant cautioned that teleology can be, for man's knowledge, only a regulative and not a constitutive principle; i.e., a guide to the conduct of inquiry rather than to the nature of reality.

In the late 19th century, controversy centred on whether the phenomena of growth, regeneration, and reproduction characteristic of living organisms could be explained in purely mechanistic terms. The vitalism of Hans Driesch, a German biologist and philosopher, according to which an Aristotelian entelechy, or immanent agency, must be postulated in every organism, found little support after his death. There remains, however, the question of whether biological processes can be explained in purely physicochemical terms, or whether the problems of structure, function, and organization necessitate some kind of teleology. Organismic conceptions, such as those espoused in the mid-20th century by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, an Austrian-Canadian theoretical biologist, have thrown these issues into a new perspective. britannica.com

Paley, William
b. July 1743, Peterborough, Northamptonshire [now in Cambridgeshire], Eng.
d. May 25, 1805, Lincoln, Lincolnshire
English Anglican priest, Utilitarian philosopher, and author of influential works on Christianity, ethics, and science, among them the standard exposition in English theology of the teleological argument for the existence of God.
Educated at Giggleswick School and Christ's College, Cambridge, Paley graduated in 1763 as senior wrangler and was appointed fellow and tutor of his college in 1766. After becoming rector of Musgrave (1775), Dalston (1776), and Appleby (1777), he was made archdeacon of Carlisle (1782) and later a canon of St. Paul's (1794), subdean of Lincoln (1795), and rector of Bishop-Wearmouth (1795).
Paley's most important works were The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785), the subject of lectures at the University of Cambridge; A View of the Evidence of Christianity (1794), which was required reading for entrance to Cambridge until the 20th century; and Natural Theology (1802), based on John Ray's Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (1691). In Natural Theology, Paley used the analogy of the watch: both the world and the watch presuppose a maker. The book strongly influenced Charles Darwin. britannica.com

Darwin on Paley:

In order to pass the B.A. examination, it was, also, necessary to get up Paley's Evidences of Christianity, and his Moral Philosophy. . . The logic of this book and as I may add of his Natural Theology gave me as much delight as did Euclid. The careful study of these works, without attempting to learn any part by rote, was the only part of the Academical Course which, as I then felt and as I still believe, was of the least use to me in the education of my mind. I did not at that time trouble myself about Paley's premises; and taking these on trust I was charmed and convinced of the long line of argumentation. Charles Darwin. Autobiography

William Paley (1743-1805) Intelligent Design Movement (1991 - )

For more on Intelligent Design see Behe (irreducible complexity of structure at molecular level), Phillip E Johnson is the de facto leader of the Intelligent Design movement, Anthropic Principle (design in the universe), Intelligent Design (articles) Intelligent Design (Books).

..... The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. (Psa 19:1)

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Rom 1:20 NIV)

(Psa 8:3-9 NIV) When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, {4} what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? {5} You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. {6} You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: {7} all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, {8} the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. {9} O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

(Psa 94:8-11 NIV) Take heed, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise? {9} Does he who implanted the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see? {10} Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches man lack knowledge? {11} The LORD knows the thoughts of man; he knows that they are futile.

Books:

Natural Theology ; Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity. Collected from the Appearances of Nature. by William Paley

Intelligent Design Books: Darwin's Black Box is the modern equivalent to Paley.

Darwin's Black Box : The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution by Michael J. Behe. Within the biochemistry of living cells, he argues, life is "irreducibly complex." This is the last black box to be opened, the end of the road for science. Faced with complexity at this level, Behe suggests that it can only be the product of "intelligent design." Read the reviews at Amazon

The Biotic Message - Walter ReMine - The book focuses on the biological issues. It is not about age, geology, cosmology, floods, or catastrophes. It contains no theology or religious discussion. I highly recommend this book. It reveals the illusions that evolutionists use to propagate their dogma. This should be read by creationists as will as evolutionists.Publisher Book Review order from Amazon

Mere Creation: Science, Faith & Intelligent DesignWilliam A. Dembski, editor InterVarsity Press (Sept., 1998), 448 pp., $24.99 . Nineteen experts trained in mathematics, mechanical engineering, philosophy, astrophysics, ecology, evolutionary biology, and other disciplines challenge the reigning ideology of materialistic naturalism on both scientific and philosophical grounds, as they press their case for a radical thinking of established evolutionary assumptions.Review Amazon

The Creation Hypothesis: Scientific Evidence for an Intelligent Designer, J P Moreland, editor (March 94, 335 pages, $13.99) P.J. Moreland and a panel of scholars examine arguments and evidence from astronomy, physics, bio-chemistry, paleontology, and linguistics as they evaluate the creation hypothesis. Review Amazon

Intelligent Design : The Bridge Between Science and Theology by William A. Dembski, Michael J. Behe. Hardcover - 302 pages (November 1999) Amazon

The Design Inference : Eliminating Chance Through Small Probabilities (Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction and Decision Theory) by William A. Dembski How can we identify events due to intelligent causes and distinguish them from events due to undirected natural causes? If we lack a causal theory, how can we determine whether an intelligent cause acted? This book presents a reliable method for detecting intelligent causes: the design inference. The design inference uncovers intelligent causes by isolating the key trademark of intelligent causes: specified events of small probability. Just about anything that happens is highly improbable, but when a highly improbable event is also specified (i.e., conforms to an independently given pattern) undirected natural causes lose their explanatory power. Amazon

Darwinism Defeated? by Phillip E. Johnson, Michael Behe, Denis O. Lamoureux Paperback - 180 pages (September 1, 1999) Amazon

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William Paley (1743-1805)

Teleology.

William Paley (1743-1805) Intelligent Design Movement (1991 - )

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