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Theories Explaining the Existence of God in The Pursuit of Wisdom
Many philosophers vividly explain the existence of God using both evidential and non-evidential theories. Lous Pojman deconstructs many theories that attempt to explain the presence of God. According to Pojman, people’s beliefs drive their affection towards God. One of the theories used by Pojman to explain the existence of God is the Teleological Argument.
Explanation of the Teleological Argument for the Existence of God
“Teleology” is derived from the word telos, which refers to a goal or purpose. The teleological argument attempts to provide proof of the existence of God. The observation of the purposiveness of nature is the genesis of proof, as expressed by the teleological argument. The basis of the argument is that there must exist a designer of the universe and all that is in it. The teleological argument points out the existence of God. It is an argument for an intelligent creator based on evidence put forward by researchers and observers of deliberate design in both the physical and natural world (Collins 151).
The argument affirms that the material earth exhibits some empirical property. By observing living organisms, instinctive and anatomical activities of living organisms are often properly-suited to the fulfillment of needs. For instance, the ears of carnivores face forward to concentrate and focus sound from their potential prey. In contrast, the ears of the herbivorous animals, such as antelopes and deer, face backward to enable them to concentrate sounds coming from their pursuers. Such designs express the potential of the existence of a designer who is God.
The teleological argument posits that the universe is interrelated, and its elements are ordered in a specific pattern. As a result, it is possible to say that despite the complexity of the earth’s elements, they form definite patterns with interrelations that show somebody was behind the design. When aspects of the universe form a pattern, they portray an aesthetic order. Teleological order, therefore, introduces structures and processes notion being fitted to create a particular desired result.
Defense of the Teleological Argument for the Existence of God
The theme takes a “purpose” to have a purpose. As a result, where people see things that have apparent intentions for purpose, they make assumptions that those things were made purposefully. Therefore, a design must have a designer. People instinctively make such connections. For instance, when one is walking around the beach and comes across a wristwatch, the person cannot assume that random chance and time produced the watch from sand that is blowing. This is because the wristwatch has clear marks of design, meaning it has a designer, hence has a purpose and conveys information. Besides, the watch also contains information. The implication is that the greater the design so is the designer.
The teleological argument for the existence of God applies such analogies to the entire universe. The theory implies that if the universe exhibits marks of design, then there must be somebody or a supernatural being who designed it. The theory further posits that every life form in the history of the earth shows high and apparent complexity. For instance, the brain of a human has a capacity of approximately 10 billion gigabytes (Johnson 197). In addition, a close look at all living things on the universe reveals that they are designed for life. Scientifically, it is evident that the universe requires hundreds of conditions for life on it to be stable. There must be a supernatural being who fine-tuned everything on earth from its mass density to earthquake for life to survive. It is, therefore, beyond imagination for the random chance of everything existing on earth to occur.
Furthermore, the teleological argument exposes the shortcomings of the evolution theory to demonstrate God’s existence by arguing that chances cannot even explain the complexities of life. For instance, bacteria are single-celled organisms but so complex such that if no one designed them, their parts could not work together simultaneously.
Works Cited
Collins, Robin. “The Teleological Argument.” The Rationality of Theism. Routledge, 2004, pp. 144-160.
Johnson, Jeffery L. “Inference to the Best Explanation and the New Teleological Argument.” The Southern Journal of Philosophy, vol. 31, no. 2, 1993, pp. 193-203.