Chapter 1: Religion God as Creator: Intelligence and Design Introducing Philosophy, 10th edition Robert C. Solomon, Kathleen Higgins, and Clancy Martin

The Cosmological Argument Actually a series of arguments There must be a first cause (“a prime mover”) that explains the existence and nature of the universe The lack of a first cause would suggest infinite regress (arguing backwards forever)

The Argument from Design The third “proof” of God’s existence is also called the intelligent design or the teleological argument Similar to an inference to the best explanation Often positioned today as an alternate explanation to the theory of evolution

The Argument You come across a watch in the sand on a deserted beach. You conclude, “People have been here.” Why? It is unlikely that a mechanism as intricate as a watch might be thrown together by the forces of nature The universe is similarly intricate, complex, and ordered. Therefore, the universe as a whole must have been rationally designed St. Thomas Aquinas in his “fifth way” formulated one classic version of the teleological argument

Objections First, it doesn’t seem to prove enough about the nature of God David Hume argues that the “design” in nature appears as such only to one who is already predisposed to believe in a designer

Shock of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution i.The power of the argument from design is, boiled down to essentials, “Isn’t it marvelous that things are as they are!” But our “marvel” depends on our putting a premium on “the way things are” Probability of it being this way? But consider the following analogy (playing cards, two excellent hands in a row)

Shock of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution ii.Evolution has given the world many different “ways that things are.” The reason for our marveling at this particular “way that things are” is that we suppose that the odds against it are uniquely high. But they are not. They are equally high against every other possible “way things are,” and so this “way” seems to deserve no special explanation