1. ‘Assess how credible evolution is as alternatives to the design argument for the existence of God’ (12 marks)
Intro – order and purpose
Design qua purpose – eye
Design qua regularity – planets
Aquinas – beneficial order
Paley – analogy of the watch

2. Explore key ideas within the design argument. (8 marks)
The design argument for the existence of God is largely based upon the idea that the cumulative effect of all of the order and purpose that exists within the universe is proof that it could not have come about by chance, it must have been designed and the only thing powerful enough to do this is God.
Design qua purpose is the idea that we can observe that things in the universe are fitted to a specific purpose. A popular example used to support this idea is the human eye that functions through a complex arrangement of intricate connected parts, and that if just one aspect were to be changed or absent, it would no longer fulfil its purpose. For many people this provides evidence for the existence of God as they cannot accept that such a complex system simply came about by itself.
Design qua regularity is the empirical observation that the universe shows order and regularity. For example, the orbit of the planets in the solar system, each planet follows a regular and orderly rotation of the sun that supporters of the argument have concluded must be the work of God who has imposed such order on the universe as a whole.
Aquinas asserted that non-rational beings can be observed as working towards an end goal or purpose. Aquinas believed that as non-rational beings lacked the required intelligence, they could not be doing this by themselves and so must be being guided by a superior intelligent being and concluded that this must be God.
The most popular analogical form of the argument is William Paley’s analogy of the watch. Paley proposes that if one was to stumble across a pocket watch we would see how it worked in an orderly way to fulfil the purpose of telling the time. Paley asserted that just as a complex mechanism like a watch needs a watchmaker to design and create it, the complexity that is our universe also needs something to design and create it, ie God.