ii. The universe could not come about by accident )Paley's teleological argument is based on an analogy: Watchmaker is to watch as God is to universe. Most often cited as a strong argument against Paley were ones put forward by David Hume. Let me take a slightly different angle. Fayestteville State University defines a good argument as “one in which the premises give good reasons to believe the conclusion is true”(1) It’s important to note that an argument can leave room for doubt in order to be valid (not everything in life has been conclusively debunked or conclusively proven!) The watchmaker analogy is a dulled version of the teleological argument. William Paley (1743 - 1805) was a British philosopher whose writings on natural theology and moral/political philosophy were largely influential amongst British and American thinkers. Paley's famous watchmaker argument is often quoted by creationists, but summarily dismissed by naturalists as being invalid. of the watchmaker. Debunked 300 years ago: From Wikipedia: David Hume (1711-1776) offered a number of the most memorable philosophical criticisms to Paley's watch analogy before Darwin's theory of evolution had been developed.His criticisms can be separated into three major distinctions: His first objection is that we have no experience of world-making. Instead of pointing out all the flaws to the Xtians (which they are just going to ignore anyway) we SHOULD be pointing out that Watchmaker Analogy actually supports a Polytheistic version of creation, therefore if there's … What makes a good argument? VI. For your assumptions to be true, you must believe in complete random chance in one universe (which is completely moronic) or you must believe in a multi verse theory of infinite time. May 29, 2015 Larry Rhodes Leave a comment. Analogy – watch discovered on a heath: The watch could not have come about by accident (unlike a rock or stone) The existence of the watch is proof of a watchmaker The universe is intricate in its design (e.g. Sixthly, he would be surprised to hear that the mechanism of the watch was no proof of contrivance, only a motive to induce the mind to think so. Just as a watch, with its intelligent design and complex function must have been created by an intelligent maker: a watchmaker, the universe, with all its complexity and greatness, must have been created by an intelligent and powerful creator. It was the scientific rejection of this theistic watchmaker analogy that led Richard Dawkins to title his 1986 book on evolutionary biology The Blind Watchmaker. VII. Back in 1802, William Paley made an argument for the existence of god that is still being used by “Intelligent Design” proponents today. Yes, but we go about it all wrong. Debunking Paley’s watchmaker argument. His most famous argument is called the watchmaker analogy, where Paley makes an inference from the complexity of living systems to a "designer". More recently, the concept of irreducible complexity has made a comeback in biochemical clothing … And not less surprised to be informed, that the watch in his hand was nothing more than the result of the laws of metallic nature. molecular structure of ice, the position of the Earth from the Sun…etc.) In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched… It is a The watchmaker analogy, as all arguments from analogy, rests on the assumption that if two things/state of affairs are similar in some known respect, are similar in other respects that are not directly observable .The similarities between the terms of analogy have to be, though, relevant. Look at this picture: It looks like large rocks that have been dragged along the desert. I most recently heard it from a Jehovah’s Witness who came knocking on my door.