What William Paley is outlining in his landmark volume Natural Theology is philosophically termed a teleological argument for the existence of God. Teleology is scientific discipline which is devoted to the study of the design in the natural world and, by extension, the purpose of that design. Hence, the subtitle of the book: “Or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature.” Rather than proceeding from the ontological argument for the existence which is invested entirely in the faith that a Supreme Being must be necessary therefore he exists, the teleological argument is more concerned with logic.
It begins by looking closely at the visible natural world around us which offers an almost infinite number of examples some sort of design being at work. Bees are a necessary part of the design for pollination; if there no bees, the whole process of plant survival breaks down. Tendons are a necessary part of the design for the interaction between muscle and bone; if tendons didn’t exist, the entire skeleton system would be cool to look, but of little use. Everywhere one looks in nature are signs of design or, to use a more precise word, order. For all the randomness and chaos in the world we now, the universe is, generally speaking, a surprisingly orderly thing. And it is from this plentiful supply of evidence that from order is inferred design. And from designed is inferred purpose. And from purpose is inferred the God.
As Paley explains, “Contrivance must have a contriver, design, a designer; whether the machine immediately preceded from another machine or not.” The central iconic metaphor which Paley himself contrived has gone on to become of the most in theological philosophy. If one were to come upon a watch lying on the ground, inspection would lead to perception: we would observe that the watch was constructed by design and that design was created to serve a purpose. Even though we may have no idea how the watch got to where it lay on the ground, the one thing we can know for sure is that somewhere out there is or was a person who put it together. It is at this point that Paley makes his greatest leap in the art of inference: we may not be able to explain the provenance of the watch, but from the very fact that it was designed to serve a purpose we can know for sure of the existence of its creator and since the watch is replicated throughout the natural world, the logical conclusion is that so much ample evidence of order which translates into design which translate into purpose means the universe has a creator out there somewhere as well.
Termed “natural theology” in the world of philosophy, this metaphor of the watch today forms the basis of what is called “intelligent design.” That is a very loaded term which has been rejected by many within the religious sphere as taking God out of the equation by suggesting that intelligent design doesn’t necessarily lead inexorably to a supreme creator. Theoretically, intelligent design could lead straight to the universe having been designed by a super-intelligent sentient computer of some sort. Of course, philosophically, that computer might really be no different from what theologians mean when they speak of a creator God. Paley, of course, would reject this notion, likely, the whole conceptualization of his theory as being applicable to “intelligent design.” His teleology was most assuredly God-centered and when he speaks of a watchmaker one should not confuse that being with anything other than the Christian God.
