What messages are being communicated? What do you think this has to do with the existence of God?

Watch the following clips.. What messages are being communicated? What do you think this has to do with the existence of God? © R Calvert, Colton Hil...
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Watch the following clips.. What messages are being communicated? What do you think this has to do with the existence of God?

© R Calvert, Colton Hills Community School

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* Aka The Design Argument.

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Teleos = end or purpose Design = the idea that something has been planned with a purpose by a designer.

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For theists this designer is God.

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William Paley ‘suppose I walk through the countryside and come across a rock. I could naturally and logically assume it had always been there. If, however, I had come across a pocket watch, and looked at all its workings, I could not naturally, or logically, assume that, like the rock, the watch had always existed there. I would naturally need to assume that at some time in some place it had been put together for a specific purpose by someone with great skill.’ © R Calvert, Colton Hills Community School

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How is the watch used as an analogy (a comparison) for the world ?

Paley argued that the world, and everything in it, is far more complex than a watch and so must have been designed by the greatest possible being, God. © R Calvert, Colton Hills Community School 6

1. To design something takes intelligence and thought. 2. The universe appears to have been designed (NOT a result of RANDOM CHANCE.) 3. Therefore, a being with intelligence and thought must have designed the universe. 4. Only God could design something as complex as the universe. 5. Therefore, God must exist.

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The universe is far more complicated than a watch. If a watch has a designer then surely the universe has.

God is omnipotent. He is the only thing powerful enough to make the universe. So … God must exist.

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Newton’s Thumb! Did you know ..  Every person in the world has a unique thumbprint.  A person has the same thumbprint all his life. Even though a person's hands grow, his thumbprints stay the same.  Even identical twins have different thumbprints.  If you injure the tip of your thumb, your skin will grow back in the same pattern and eventually your original thumbprint will return.

When Isaac Newton looked at his unique thumb print, he felt that this was evidence that a designer God exists! “In absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.” © R Calvert, Colton Hills Community School

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Objections to the Designer God. David Hume was an 18th c. philosopher. He said the universe didn’t have to be designed. It could have come about by random chance and coincidence. Hume’s objections were later expanded upon by Charles Darwin who said ‘evolution’ and ‘natural selection’ (survival of the fittest) help us to understand our world today, not a designer god.

If God is a benevolent God, and a perfect designer, why is there so much cruelty in the © R Calvert, Colton Hills Community School 10 animal kingdom? Is it a design flaw???!!!

Richard Dawkins is a scientist who wrote a book called ’The Blind Watchmaker’. He says there are too many design faults in the universe to say they are a result of a designer God. http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/designer-or-nodesigner/3808.html Atheist Julian Baggini meets Richard Dawkins to explore how Darwin's ideas of natural selection offer an alternative explanation to the origin of life, without the need for a designer God. Countering William Paley's idea that there must be a divine watchmaker, Dawkins describes how he sees evolution as the 'blind watchmaker'. Dawkins responds to the idea that a Darwinian worldview is rather bleak by explaining the value in making one's own purpose in life.

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Design Faults

Problem of Evil

Design of the universe proves there IS NO GOD

Design of the universe proves there IS A GOD Complexity of nature

Psychopath

Cruelty

Spiral galaxy

Isaac Newton’s thumb

Interdependence in human body

Earthquakes

Disease

Immune System

Paley’s Watch

luck

Evolution

©weak R Calvert, Colton Hills Community School Interdependence strong

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in nature

Past Paper Questions (PPQ’s) Use your picture sheet to help you! Q1.

Explain briefly the reasons some people might give for believing that the world was NOT designed by God. (3)

Some people such as atheists may give the following reasons to explain that the world was NOT created by God. 1. 2. 3. Q2.

How would a theist explain the Design (Teleological) argument for the existence of God to an atheist? (3)

A Theist would believe that God designed the world because 1. 2. 3.

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Plenary

How could the eye be used to prove the existence of God? © R Calvert, Colton Hills Community School

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It's all in the eye Duration: 04:56 Scientist and atheist Richard Dawkins explains how our eyes are constructed. He doesn't believe they were made in one step by a master maker, he believes they evolved from flat patches of light sensitive cells many millions of year ago. He explains today you can find examples of living creatures with the types of eyes from each stage in the evolutionary process. http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/its-all-in-the-eye/454.html © R Calvert, Colton Hills Community School

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