Watchmaker analogy information

The watchmaker analogy or watchmaker argument is a teleological argument, an argument for the existence of God, originating in natural theology, which is often used to argue for the pseudoscientific concept of intelligent design. The analogy states that a design implies a designer, by an intelligent designer, i.e. a creator deity. The watchmaker analogy was given by William Paley in his 1802 book Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity.^[1] The original analogy played a prominent role in natural theology and the "argument from design," where it was used to support arguments for the existence of God of the universe, in both Christianity and Deism. Prior to Paley, however, Sir Isaac Newton, René Descartes, and others from the time of the Scientific Revolution had each believed "that the physical laws he [each] had uncovered revealed the mechanical perfection of the workings of the universe to be akin to a watch, wherein the watchmaker is God."^[2]

The 1859 publication of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection put forward an alternative explanation to the watchmaker analogy, for complexity and adaptation. In the 19th century, deists, who championed the watchmaker analogy, held that Darwin's theory fit with "the principle of uniformitarianism—the idea that all processes in the world occur now as they have in the past" and that deistic evolution "provided an explanatory framework for understanding species variation in a mechanical universe."^[3]

When evolutionary biology began being taught in American high schools in the 1960s, Christian fundamentalists used versions of the argument to dispute the concepts of evolution and natural selection, and there was renewed interest in the watchmaker argument. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins referred to the analogy in his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker giving his explanation of evolution. Others, however, consider the watchmaker analogy to be compatible with evolutionary creation, opining that the two concepts are not mutually exclusive.

^ William Paley - William Carey University
^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] William Paley - William Carey University

[:0-2] Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[:1-3] Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Watchmaker analogy information

and 27 Related for: Watchmaker analogy information

Watchmaker analogy

Teleological argument

Watchmaker

Richard Dawkins

The Blind Watchmaker

Argument from analogy

William Paley

Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity

Agnosticism

Western esotericism

Animism

Atheism

Intelligent design

BK Shivani

Cosmological argument

Theology

Existence of God

Teleology in biology

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Pantheism

Irreducible complexity

Blaise Pascal

Deism

Karl Marx

Mysticism

Exegesis

Soul

Deism
Origins Deus (Deus otiosus) Logos § Ancient Greek philosophy Neoplatonism § The One Chinese theology § Confucian theology Averroism Socinianism Unmoved mover Watchmaker God
Movements 18th-century England and France Christian Deism Pandeism (in Asia) (and Christianity) (criticism) Spinozism Cult of the Supreme Being Theophilanthropy Deistic evolution Natural theology Congregationalism in the US § Disinterested benevolence Polydeism
Notable figures Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke Matthew Tindal Voltaire Charles Blount Thomas Chubb Thomas Jefferson Thomas Paine Guido von List Cayetano Ripoll
False equivalencies Ceremonial deism Moralistic therapeutic deism
Opposition Catholic Church John Leland Edward Stillingfleet § Philosophical controversy Anthony Bliss John Jackson Johann Georg Hamann Charles Jennens Religious thought of Edmund Burke Richard Blackmore § Non-epic writing James McGready Valentin Ernst Löscher Continental prophecies § Themes Friedrich Julius Stahl
v t e

Intelligent design
Part of a series on
Watchmaker analogy
Concepts
Irreducible complexity Specified complexity Fine-tuned universe Intelligent designer Theistic science Neo-creationism
Movement
Timeline Wedge strategy Politics Kitzmiller v. Dover
Campaigns
Discovery Institute campaigns "Teach the controversy"
Authors
Jonathan Wells William A. Dembski Phillip E. Johnson Michael Behe
Organisations
Discovery Institute Center for Science and Culture Centre for Intelligent Design International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design (ISCID) Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity Truth in Science
Reactions
Jewish Roman Catholic Scientific bodies that explicitly reject intelligent design
Creationism
Category
v t e