The Design Argument

This Element analyzes the various forms that design arguments for the existence of God can take, but the main focus is on two such arguments. The first concerns the complex adaptive features that organisms have. Creationists who advance this argument contend that evolution by natural selection cannot be the right explanation. The second design argument - the argument from fine-tuning - begins with the fact that life could not exist in our universe if the constants found in the laws of physics had values that differed more than a little from their actual values. Since probability is the main analytical tool used, the Element provides a primer on probability theory.

[1]  W. Whewell Astronomy and General Physics Considered with Reference to Natural Theology: Mutual Adaptation of Laws of Nature , 2009 .

[2]  R. Lewontin ‘The Selfish Gene’ , 1977, Nature.

[3]  Paul Draper,et al.  Pain and Pleasure: An Evidential Problem for Theists , 1989 .

[4]  John Earman,et al.  The Sap Also Rises: A Critical Examination of the Anthropic Principle , 1987 .

[5]  J. Keynes A Treatise on Probability. , 1923 .

[6]  R. Swinburne The existence of God , 2020 .

[7]  J. Crow Genes that violate Mendel's rules. , 1979, Scientific American.

[8]  BARRY A. PALEVITZ Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design , 2005 .

[9]  W. Doolittle,et al.  Selfish genes, the phenotype paradigm and genome evolution , 1980, Nature.

[10]  John D. Barrow,et al.  The world within the world , 1988 .

[11]  L. McGrew Testability, Likelihoods, and Design , 2004 .

[12]  W. Buckland Geology and Mineralogy Considered with Reference to Natural Theology , 2009 .

[13]  R. Numbers Darwinian Heresies: Ironic Heresy: How Young-Earth Creationists Came to Embrace Rapid Microevolution by Means of Natural Selection , 2004 .

[14]  R. Royall Statistical Evidence: A Likelihood Paradigm , 1997 .

[15]  Alvin Plantinga The probabilistic argument from evil , 1979 .

[16]  Peter Lipton,et al.  Inference to the best explanation , 1993 .

[17]  Graham Priest,et al.  Problems With the Argument From Fine Tuning , 2005, Synthese.

[18]  Phillip E. Johnson Darwin on Trial , 1991 .

[19]  Robin Collins EVIDENCE FOR FINE-TUNING , 2003 .

[20]  N. Pierce Origin of Species , 1914, Nature.

[21]  E. Sober,et al.  Philosophy of Biology , 1993 .

[22]  Elliott Sober,et al.  Evidence and Evolution: The logic behind the science , 2008, Human Genomics.

[23]  C. Howson,et al.  Scientific Reasoning: The Bayesian Approach , 1989 .

[24]  Elliott Sober,et al.  Likelihood, Model Selection, and the Duhem-Quine Problem , 2004 .

[25]  Robin Collins The Teleological Argument: An Exploration of the Fine-Tuning of the Universe , 2009 .

[26]  R. L. Poidevin,et al.  Arguing for Atheism : An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion , 1996 .

[27]  J. Krebs,et al.  An introduction to behavioural ecology , 1981 .

[28]  W. Salmon Religion and science: A new look at Hume's Dialogues , 1978 .

[29]  STATHIS PSILLOS,et al.  The Fine Structure of Inference to the Best Explanation , 2007 .

[30]  R V Williams,et al.  Genetic Takeover and the Mineral Origins of Life , 1983 .

[31]  Roger White Fine-Tuning and Multiple Universes , 2000 .

[32]  T. Cavalier-smith,et al.  Darwin's Black Box , 1997 .

[33]  Van Fraassen,et al.  Laws and symmetry , 1989 .

[34]  A. Pyle Hume's "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion": Reader's Guide , 2006 .

[35]  Elliott Sober,et al.  Intelligent design and probability reasoning , 2002 .

[36]  P. Horwich Probability and Evidence , 1972 .

[37]  John M. Robson,et al.  The Fiat and Finger of God: The Bridgewater Treatises , 1990 .

[38]  E. Sober,et al.  Common Ancestry and Natural Selection , 2003, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

[39]  J. Becker,et al.  The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory , 1955 .

[40]  E. Mcmullin Indifference principle and anthropic principle in cosmology , 1993 .

[41]  John Puddefoot,et al.  The Design Inference , 2000 .

[42]  R. Swinburne Explanation and its Limits: The Limits of Explanation , 1991 .

[43]  Ian Hacking,et al.  The Inverse Gambler''s Fallacy: The Argument From Design: The , 1987 .

[44]  B. Monton God, Fine-Tuning, and the Problem of Old Evidence , 2006, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

[45]  Carl G. Hempel,et al.  I.—STUDIES IN THE LOGIC OF CONFIRMATION (II.) , 1945 .

[46]  D. Dennett Intentional systems in cognitive ethology: The “Panglossian paradigm” defended , 1983, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[47]  William A. Dembski The Design Inference: Index , 1998 .

[48]  G. Priest The argument from design , 1981 .

[49]  Elliott Sober,et al.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH INTELLIGENT DESIGN? , 2007, The Quarterly Review of Biology.

[50]  G. Oppy Paley’s Argument for Design , 2002 .

[51]  R. Swinburne The Limits of Explanation: The Limits of Explanation , 1990, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement.

[52]  A. N. Kolmogorov,et al.  Foundations of the theory of probability , 1960 .

[53]  N. Everitt The non-existence of God , 2003 .

[54]  R. Zach Selection and Dropping of Whelks By Northwestern Crows , 1978 .

[55]  A. Tversky,et al.  Evidential impact of base rates , 1981 .

[56]  F. Crick,et al.  Selfish DNA: the ultimate parasite , 1980, Nature.

[57]  Elliott Sober,et al.  Did Darwin write the Origin backwards? , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[58]  N. Reid,et al.  Likelihood , 1993 .

[59]  M. Koehl,et al.  AERODYNAMICS, THERMOREGULATION, AND THE EVOLUTION OF INSECT WINGS: DIFFERENTIAL SCALING AND EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE , 1985, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[60]  A. M. Turing,et al.  Computing Machinery and Intelligence , 1950, The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence.

[61]  Barbara Forrest,et al.  Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design , 2003 .

[62]  Elliott Sober,et al.  INTELLIGENT DESIGN THEORY AND THE SUPERNATURAL—THE ‘GOD OR EXTRA-TERRESTRIALS’ REPLY , 2007 .

[63]  A. Thomas,et al.  The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas , 1981 .

[64]  M. Ruse Darwin and design : does evolution have a purpose? , 2003 .

[65]  T. Clutton‐Brock,et al.  Primate ecology and social organization , 2009 .

[66]  R. Swinburne The Argument from Design , 1968 .

[67]  B. Russell I.—On the Notion of Cause , 1913 .

[68]  A. Shapiro William Paley's lost "intelligent design". , 2009, History and philosophy of the life sciences.

[69]  E. Madden,et al.  Evil and the Concept of God , 1969 .

[70]  Elliott Sober,et al.  Optimality Models and the Test of Adaptationism , 1994, The American Naturalist.

[71]  John Venn,et al.  The Logic Of Chance , 1888 .

[72]  R. A. Fisher,et al.  Statistical methods and scientific inference. , 1957 .

[73]  Robert T. Pennock Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism , 1999 .

[74]  A. Tversky,et al.  Judgments of and by Representativeness , 1981 .

[75]  Matt Cartmill,et al.  Darwin and design: Does evolution have a purpose? , 2005 .

[76]  William Paley Natural theology : or, evidences of the existence and attributes of the Deity : collected from the appearances of nature , 2018 .

[77]  S. Gould The Panda's Thumb , 1980 .

[78]  J. Narveson GOD BY DESIGN , 2003 .

[80]  Henry E. Kyburg,et al.  Probability and the logic of rational belief , 1970 .

[81]  Elliott Sober I–Elliott Sober , 2000 .

[82]  Alvin Plantinga,et al.  The Nature of Necessity. , 1975 .

[83]  J. Weisberg A note on design: What’s fine-tuning got to do with it? , 2010 .

[84]  Elliott Sober,et al.  Why Likelihood ? , 1980 .

[85]  S. Dick The biological universe : the twentieth-century extraterrestrial life debate and the limits of science , 1996 .

[86]  N. Campbell,et al.  Scientific Inference , 1931, Nature.

[87]  W. Rowe,et al.  4.1 'THE PROBLEM OF EVIL AND SOME VARIETIES OF ATHEISM' , 2001, Philosophy of Religion.

[88]  C. Darwin The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex: INDEX , 1871 .

[89]  B. Carter Large Number Coincidences and the Anthropic Principle in Cosmology , 1974 .

[90]  Elliott Sober,et al.  Bayesianism: its scope and limits , 2002 .

[91]  Lydia McGrew,et al.  Probabilities and the Fine‐Tuning Argument: a Sceptical View , 2001 .

[92]  Malcolm R. Forster,et al.  Counterexamples to a likelihood theory of evidence , 2006, Minds and Machines.

[93]  Niall Shanks,et al.  Redundant Complexity: A Critical Analysis of Intelligent Design in Biochemistry , 1999, Philosophy of Science.

[94]  R. Fisher,et al.  Statistical Methods and Scientific Inference, 3rd Ed.@@@Scientific Inference, 3rd Ed. , 1974 .

[95]  M. Behe,et al.  Irreducible Complexity : Obstacle to Darwinian Evolution , 2007 .

[96]  Elliott Sober,et al.  The Nature of Selection , 1984 .

[97]  Elliott Sober,et al.  Quine's Two Dogmas , 2022 .

[98]  Arthur Eddington The philosophy of physical science , 1939 .

[99]  Elliott Sober,et al.  Testing the hypothesis of common ancestry. , 2002, Journal of theoretical biology.

[100]  R. Swinburne Argument from the Fine-Tuning of the Universe , 1990 .

[101]  D. Graham Creationism and its Critics in Antiquity , 2009 .

[102]  William A. Dembski The Design Inference by William A. Dembski , 1998 .

[103]  Elliott Sober,et al.  Absence of evidence and evidence of absence: evidential transitivity in connection with fossils, fishing, fine-tuning, and firing squads , 2009 .

[104]  R. A. Fisher,et al.  The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection , 1931 .

[105]  R. Dawkins The Blind Watchmaker , 1986 .

[106]  E. Sober,et al.  Evolution and the Problem of Other Minds , 2000 .

[107]  Branden Fitelson,et al.  How Not to Detect Design , 1999, Philosophy of Science.

[108]  G. A. Barnard,et al.  THE LOGIC OF STATISTICAL INFERENCE1 , 1972, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.