Paley
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“There cannot be design without a designer.” This quote and many other statements in William Paleys argument lead me to believe that William Paley is trying to argue that there is a designer for everything from the universe to watches. The origin of the universe can be very complicated but I completely agree with Paleys argument.
He compares the universe to a watch since a watch can be so complicated and have many different parts in order for it to work correctly. By giving different scenarios he states that watches have a complex structure, and they arent just thrown together. He talks about the different laws and how it is hard to believe that everything is just put together and does not just appear on the ground where the object (watch) was found. The object must be made by someone who has knowledge about the design of an object and how an object functions. Then Mr. Paley talks about how we have never seen a watch being made so how do we know that a watchmaker made the watch. However, someone had to make the watch because it was just not put together by the ground. If we really wanted to we could probably watch a watchmaker make a watch, but we arent able to watch God make anything. By this he is stating that anything so complicated such as humans, animals, plants, and nature are made by someone and that someone must be God. I think this all unfolds to Paleys quote that I started this paper with “There cannot be design without a designer.”
In the first paragraph he puts his foot on a stone and asks how the stone came to be there. This made me think because there is really no explanation besides God made it. Honestly, I dont know how else it could be there? It could develop by water or minerals but where did the water and minerals come from? There are a chain of questions that could be asked but at the end of the chain there is no answer. However most Christians believe that the answer is God made it.
In conclusion, there are many different ways that you could look at this argument. I think that William Paley is trying to prove that everything that exists had to come from God; therefore God must exist. I agree with this philosophers views and opinions about the existence of God.