Module Nine: William Paley (1743-1805) English philosopher William Paley is well-known for his “Design Argument,” which is yet another argument for the existence of God

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Module Nine: William Paley (1743-1805) English philosopher William Paley is well-known for his “Design Argument,” which is yet another argument for the existence of God. Paley argues that the natural world exhibits an order, a purpose, even a beauty, that evidences someone or something behind all the phenomena. He compares the experience of finding a stone and the discovery of a watch in a heath (an open field). He develops a short discussion of what one might conclude from the two discoveries. The argument operate by analogy: just as one would conclude from the discovery of the watch that it must have been made by an intelligent designer, we can conclude something from the observation of the apparent design of nature. Paley gives us a few responses to possible questions: We would not have to understand how watches are made to come to this conclusion, we might never have seen someone make a watch, and we might even observe that the watch sometimes malfunctions, etc., and yet we could still conclude something when we came upon this watch. This is relatively short and straightforward piece but it gives us a chance to think about the apparent purpose of the world. To some extent this argument stands in contrast to a view of a random and pointless universe, governed only by chance and evolution. For this Reflection Essay summarize the argument the argument and consider some of the eight objections/questions that he lists. What do you learn from Paley? Is he persuasive? How does his argument compare to the arguments we have seen from St. Anselm and St. Thomas Aquinas? What would a Darwinist say to this argument? Your Reflection Essay should be 200-250 words. It is due Monday August 9 at 11:59pm. You should send it to me as an attachment (word document or PDF file) to an email.