Strengths

Immanuel Kant: It can be supported by empirical evidence 

• EXAMPLE: Whales migrate from Alaska to warming climates to reproduce. This begs the question of how the nonrational whales know to do this? The principle that non-rational beings are being guided by an intelligent designer can be supported by a sound analogy 

• ANALOGY: Aquinas uses the analogy of an arrow (a non-rational object) reaching a target. It does this because it is guided by the archer who fired it. Likewise, life is being guided by an intelligent designer 

▪ This analogy appears sound as it does parallel how animals act by instincts without using rational though 

Weaknesses

David Hume: We cannot accurately assess the beneficial order of the world 

▪ Hume argued that to assess if there was a beneficial order in our world, we would need to compare it to a world without a beneficial order 

▪ However, the world is unique so we cannot compare it 

David Hume: The Design Argument anthropomorphises God 

▪ Hume argued that to compare God to a human designer limits God’s qualities to that of a human 

▪ He argues that just as there may be multiply human designers, there may also be multiple Gods. 

▪ Likewise, a human designer can create something and die and so it could also be that God designed the world and died. 

Strengths

Richard Swinburne: There are lots of empirical examples to support Paley’s Analogy

 o EXAMPLE: Natural Laws and the orderly nature of the world as evidence supporting Paley’s argument as it shows regularity and order 

▪ Swinburne notes that science rather than criticising the argument has instead shown just how orderly the natural world is 

F.R. Tennant: You could add beauty as another feature of design to strength Paley’s argument 

▪ F.R. Tennant argued that along with purpose and regularity, you could add beauty as an indicator of something being designed 

▪ You cannot explain why the world is so beautiful if there is no designer crafting it 

Weaknesses

Richard Dawkins: Darwinian Evolution is more convincing 

▪ In ‘The Blind Watchmaker’, Dawkins argued that complexity and regularity can be explained better by natural selection and evolution 

• • ANALOGY: Douglas Adams used an analogy of a puddle believing that the hole was made to fit it because it fitted it perfectly 

Richard Dawkins: We see the world through purposecoloured spectacles 

▪ Dawkins argued that people want to see purpose in the world even if there isn’t any (he says we look at the world through ‘purpose-coloured spectacles’) 

• EXAMPLE: People will read meaning into things all the time when they are in fact just coincidences 

J.S. Mill : The Problem of Suffering 

▪ In ‘Nature and Utility’, J.S. Mill argued that if a God did design the world then suffering in the world means that God isn’t a very good designer