Design Argument

• Inductive argument

  A process of reasoning from particular instances to general probable conclusions. Goes beyond information contained in promises so cannot guarantee truth of conclusion.
• Features of an inductive argument

  • Uses a posteriori knowledge based on sense experience and evidence from our senses
  • an argument from probability - conclusion is probable based on using what we know to speculate about what isn't known
• Posteriori def.

  Reasoning and knowledge which comes from experience post the experience

  • Tested using evidence as it provides probable answers
• Posteriori arguments of based on experience from a good authority
• Posterior arguments can be coincidences and our senses can deceive us and send us into a false sense of reality so we may make assumptions based on fewer experiences
• Design argument

  • More probable than not that the universe appears ordered and designed as created by an intelligent being
  • Teleological: Concerned with the meaning and the purpose of the world and the progress of the world towards an ultimate goal
  • Based on an anthology (Comparing something we know to something we don't)
• We are the perfect distance from the sun for human life to survive - shows order and regularity from a higher being
• The DA fits Genesis so supports Christian beliefs about how the word was made
• God didn't create us with a purpose and we have evolved to survive as we do
• "We make purpose where there isn't any" Bertrand Russell