Teleological Argument (aka the Watch Maker Argument)

Spring 2010 is over, and summer is here!  Right on time too, since we were all pretty much at the edge of our sanity!  It's not cool that I haven't blogged in such a long time, especially since very many thoughts have been circulating my mind.  It's time to unload!  As I've mentioned in my previous post, I believe it was part of God's plan that I took Philosophy of Religion this past semester.  I've been in the midst of a crisis in faith for about a year now, and this class forced me to confront my own philosophies and perspectives about faith and religion.  It's really been an eye opening experience--and a painful and frustrating one too, at times!  Many posts to come...

Let's start off with William Paley's teleological argument...

Imagine this.  You're on an island that has never before been inhabited.  As you're exploring, you find a little machine, a watch, in the sand.  You're not sure what it is.  It might even be broken or have missing parts, and you might not know what it does or how it works.  Either way, you look inside the little device and see tiny gears and parts that somehow work together for it to properly function.  Because of this, you are able to conclude that there is intelligent design behind it, that someone must have made it.  Therefore, there must be a Watch Maker.  

Now let's apply this theory to the universe.  The universe is an extremely complex machinery, made up of very, very many smaller "machines" capable of functioning independently.  Because of this higher-order intricacy displayed by and observed throughout the universe, we are able to conclude that intelligent design is involved.  Therefore, there must be a Universe Maker.  And because the mechanisms of nature clearly surpass that of any man-made machine, it can be concluded that the Universe Maker is greater than human.

I believe that science analyzes and explains phenomena which religion only mentions.  For example, according to Genesis, God spoke and the universe was born.  Similarly, scientists hypothesize the Big Bang theory marked the beginning of the universe.  Both were sudden events with a clearly marked point of origin.  What if God's command was manifested through the Big Bang, which created the universe?  Also, according to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, nature favors chaos and disorder.  It takes a conscious, energy-requiring effort to bring order.  This is obviously true.  A glass of water always makes a mess when someone knocks it over; it is never the other way around.  This never happens in reverse, with the spill spontaneously returning into the glass.  (ha, I wish!)  Someone has to consciously clean it up and use energy to do so.  Since this is true, that nature favors chaos, a machine made up of various components could not have simply resulted from a random arrangement of parts which occurred by chance; it must be a product of intelligent design!

It's a well-known fact that I am a true nerd, to the core.  I've oohed and aahed at the mechanisms in organic chemistry, biochemical pathways, and the intricate processes of the human body.  (I've actually made a few posts about it before, here and here.)  Learning about all this, especially within the context of biochemistry and philosophy, is just absolutely mind-blowing.  Every time I learn a new pathway, a new process, I have to stop and take a few moments to truly admire the wonders of it.  It really is amazing, I can't stress that enough!  I understand that not very many people have the interest or the patience to learn about science in such great detail, but those who do cannot deny the innate intricacies of these systems.  This cannot possibly arise from chance, or  even evolution, alone.  This stuff is the focus of my career, my profession, and my greatest interest.  And because I know so very many examples of the intricacies of nature, I cannot dispute that the universe reflects intelligent design.  And for me, above anything else, this proves that my God, my Creator and Intelligent Designer, truly exists.