Claim CI410:
Design requires a designer; contrivance requires a contriver.
Source:
Paley, William, 1802. Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence
and Attributes of the Deity. London: J. Faulder, p. 11.
Response:
- Design does not require an anthropomorphized designer. Designs appear
in clouds, for example, with no more of a designer than uneven heating,
evaporation, and other natural causes.
Even an anthropomorphized designer need not be a deity. The atheistic
religion of Raelianism, for example, proposes that humans were created
by extraterrestrials (Raelian Movement, n.d.).
- Evolution is a designer. Via variation and selection, it serves to
favor reproduction and shape things according to environmental
conditions.
- If the designer does not need a designer to create it, why should other
things?
References:
created 2001-2-17, modified 2005-3-29