Download Anthropic Principle File

Under attack: Where do theists go now?
Abandon the argument
Base theism on
Something else
Reject theism
Re-state the argument
Reject / reply to
Hume & Darwinian
criticisms
Reformulate the
argument on a
different basis
Beauty
Personal faith
Revealed theology
Different theistic arguments
Anthropic principle
Argue for non-classical theology
F.R. Tennant and the
anthropic principle
• Cambridge academic and clergyman 1866-1957.
• “Nature is meaningless and valueless without God behind it
and Man in front.” (Philosophical Theology, 1930)
• Tennant is arguing that humanity is at the forefront of
creation, because the circumstances of the universe
uniquely and surprisingly enable human life to emerge.
• Tennant was the first theist philosopher to use the
fundamental characteristics of the universe as lifenurturing to offer a new form of teleological argument;
many have since followed this path.
Anthropic reasoning
• From the Greek ‘anthropos’
(human/man); anthropic reasoning
argues from the human perspective.
• Write down a list of the factors
necessary for your existence.
• Reflect: are humans fortunate in
having the conditions of life met? Is
it surprising that the world is set up
for life?
Weak and strong principles
• ‘Weak anthropic
principle’
• The circumstances in
our universe are such
that the emergence of
life is possible.
• This could fit in with
theism (God has
enabled life), but does
not so clearly suggest
the idea of creation.
• ‘Strong anthropic
principle’
• The circumstances in
our universe are such
that the emergence of
life is inevitable
• Theists could use this to
argue teleologically,
that God has intended a
human life producing
universe.
Anthropic teleological argument
1. The emergence of human life in our universe depends on
numerous factors: planetary conditions, fundamental laws
of physics, etc.
2. Human life has emerged in our universe.
3. A life-friendly universe such as ours is highly improbable;
almost any other set of circumstances we can think of
would have been life-hostile.
4. A designer or intelligent Creator would make sense of our
improbable universe.
CONCLUSION: God exists
Unconvincing
Rate my argument
Convincing
A new design argument?
Keith Ward
“The argument in its
seventeenth-century form …
may have been superseded by
Darwin. But the design
argument still lives, as an
argument that the precise
structure of laws and constants
that seem uniquely fitted to
produce life by a process of
evolution is highly improbable.
The existence of a designer or
creator God makes this much
less improbable. That is the new
Design Argument, and it is very
effective.”
But can you criticise Ward’s
‘new’ argument?
• Your criticisms:
1.
2.
3.
Richard Swinburne
• One of the most eminent modern philosophers of
religion is Richard Swinburne, Professor of
Philosophy at Oxford (retired).
• Swinburne is the chief exponent of what Ward
calls the “new design argument” – an argument
which takes a different path from the preDarwinian argument of Paley.
• His argument is set out in The Existence of God.
• Swinburne begins by distinguishing between
spatial and temporal order. ‘Spatial order’ is the
subject of Paley’s argument – how parts are fitted
together in an orderly way by a designer.
Swinburne regards this argument as defeated by
Darwinism.
Swinburne continued
I pass on to consider a form of teleological argument which seems to
me a much stronger one-the teleological argument from the
temporal order of the world. The temporal order of the universe is, to
the man who bothers to give it a moment's thought, an
overwhelmingly striking fact about it. Regularities of succession are
all pervasive. For simple laws govern almost all successions of
events. In books of physics, chemistry, and biology we can learn how
almost everything in the world behaves. The laws of their behaviour
can be set out by relatively simple formulae which men can
understand and by means of which they can successfully predict the
future. The orderliness of the universe to which I draw attention here
is its conformity to formula, to simple, formutable, scientific laws.
The orderliness of the universe in this respect is a very striking fact
about it. The universe might so naturally have been chaotic, but it is
not-it is very orderly.
The God conclusion
• Given the striking pervasiveness of orderly laws of
nature, Swinburne asks, how are we to explain the
universe as we find it?
• Swinburne claims that scientists are able to define
laws, say how they work, and discover new ones.
However, what scientists may never do is find a basis
for the most fundamental laws in the first place.
• In other words, the scientific method cannot explain
why there is deep and fundamental order in the first
place.
• If there is no possible scientific explanation for this,
then we are required to look for another simple and
elegant explanation – the most likely answer, he
claims, is God.
Objections to modern design arguments
• Multiverse theory – there may be and may have been
many universes, most of which are chaotic and do not
sustain life. If there are many universes, the chance of
an orderly universe emerging are not remote.
• Humans over-state their importance – famously put
forward by the American poet Mark Twain. The world
was not created as an amazing habitat for man; man
exists because of the world, not the other way around.
Unconvincing
Rate Swinburne’s
argument
Convincing
Theological objections to design
• Finally, it may surprise you to know that some
theists have objected to design arguments on
theological grounds; they see these arguments as
misrepresenting or diminishing the divine.
• A classic example of this is the great artist, poet,
and mystic William Blake (1757-1827). He wrote a
work tellingly titled There is No Natural Religion
(1788), which attacks the idea of the human
senses encompassing the idea of the divine.
• Blake argues that “none could have other than
natural or organic thoughts” if reliant upon
sensory perception alone. This removes the
revelation of a transcendent God from the heart of
religion, which Blake did not accept.
Isaac Newton, by William Blake (1795)
Blake’s opposition to natural religion is typified in his
famous painting of Isaac Newton. Here, Newton is
unflatteringly depicted at the bottom of the sea, fixed
upon his mathematical drawings.
Blake, a visionary, opposed the idea of religion being
discovered materially and naturally, through science. The
possibility of different types of perception of the divine
are important for Blake: man “perceives more than sense
can discover”.
Assessment
(a) Explain how the teleological argument attempts to prove the existence of God. (25)
(b) “Evolution leaves no room for a designer of the universe”. Discuss. (10)