P1.1 design argument

• fine-tuning argument: F R Tennant’s idea that the universe is ‘fine-tuned’ for life. Any change in the conditions of the universe outside of a narrow range would have prevented life from developing.
• “Maybe only if order is there can we know what is there, but that makes what is there no less extraordinary and in need of explanation.” (Swinburne)
• “The universe is characterized by vast, all-pervasive Temporal Order, the conformity of nature to formula, recorded in the scientific laws formulated by men.” (Swinburne)
• “Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science.” (US National Academy of Sciences)
• an irreducibly complex system is one “composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning” (Michael Behe)
• in the universe all we see is "blind, pitiless indifference" (Dawkins)
• Dawkins says Paley’s analogy from watch to watchmaker and universe to universe-maker is "gloriously and utterly wrong"
• the design argument is an a posteriori and inductive argument
• Swinburne: spatial and temporal teleological arguments
• anthropic principle: the reason and purpose of the universe is to support human life.
• Hume's 4 criticisms of the design argument

  • analogy between watch and living organisms doesn't work
  • can't move from effects to causes as no experience of universe being made
  • doesn't mean GCT - many gods, imperfect god, god that died
  • @Aquinas: fallacy of composition - things in world have telos doesn't mean universe does
• fallacy of composition: the idea that the whole is the same as the sum of its parts (e.g. I am made of cells ≠ I am a cell)