I've never found the design argument evenly slightly convincing.
I think it hangs on a type 1 (fast) intuitive error.
In the Paley classic, the observer is supposed to contrast the watch to the surrounding rocks to deduce that the watch was designed. Some steps later this fact is supposed to prove that the rocks also were designed. The deduction from the initial comparison was therefore wrong as were the conclusions leading therefrom.
It also fails in that if humans were the product of eons of natural selection acting on wet chemistry, then their "designed" products; watches, cars and 747s are also the result of eons of natural selection acting on wet chemistry. You have to have a dualist presupposition of design already in place for the conclusion that actual design follows from apparent design.
I think it hangs on a type 1 (fast) intuitive error.
In the Paley classic, the observer is supposed to contrast the watch to the surrounding rocks to deduce that the watch was designed. Some steps later this fact is supposed to prove that the rocks also were designed. The deduction from the initial comparison was therefore wrong as were the conclusions leading therefrom.
It also fails in that if humans were the product of eons of natural selection acting on wet chemistry, then their "designed" products; watches, cars and 747s are also the result of eons of natural selection acting on wet chemistry. You have to have a dualist presupposition of design already in place for the conclusion that actual design follows from apparent design.
So how, exactly, does God know that She's NOT a brain in a vat?
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