The overall strengths of the Design Argument.
- The Design Argument is a coherent and valid philosophical argument. The argument is soundly based on empirical data and we can accept the idea of a designer.
- The argument is simple and easily understandable and has merit.
- It appeals to our aesthetic sense and there is an appeal to logic.
- The argument has survived for centuries, for example one the earliest examples is Cicero's De Natura Deorum.
- Everything in this world has a purpose and to have this purpose, it has to be created. This is explained by the design argument.
- The argument is consistent with the Bible. In Genesis, God created us in his image.
- The argument agrees with a traditional theistic view of the world.
A Brief Intro to the Design Argument
- It appeals to a human's desire to explain everything.
- It is inductive meaning we can use our own experiences to argue for the existence of a designer. We see it when we look at the complexity of the world. It works because we can see the complexity of the world and this complexity leads us to believe that there is a designer.
- The argument appeals to a lot of people including Aquinas, Swinburne, Paley and Tennant.
- The argument has good analogies which we can use as evidence i.e. Aquinas and the archer and Paley's Watch.
- The argument confirms the purpose of the world. It was designed for some purpose although we don't know what it is.
The Design Argument is a teleological and inductive argument. The basic argument is that since the world is so complex and beautiful that it could not have come into existence on its own; it needed a designer, an intelligent being. God is an intelligent being therefore he exists as he is the designer.