(December 7, 2014 at 8:38 pm)LostLocke Wrote:Exactly. All teleological arguments make the obvious face-palming error of begging the question; that accumulative changes resulting in higher levels of order and subsequent intelligent systems presume intentionality and conscious design is the very point to be demonstrated.(December 7, 2014 at 5:13 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Your response only shows that you have not studied the argument before presenting a strawman of it. The fifth way is not a design argument as modernly understood. Common experience shows that efficient causes are directed towards specific sets of results and not just any random effects.It's not a straw man.
Causes, efficient or not, don't work 'towards a goal'. Causes just happen.
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza