The Watch and the Watchmaker
Paley · Natural Theology · 1802
You are crossing a deserted heath and find a watch lying on the ground. You would never believe it had assembled itself: so many gears fitted to a purpose betray a hand that designed them. Now, Paley observes, the eye that sees, the wing that carries, the order of the stars are mechanisms a thousand times more intricate. How could so much order, beauty and complexity, down to the fine tuning of the laws of the universe, exist without having been intended?
Does this admirable order prove a creator who designed it, or can an appearance of design arise from blind processes, with no intention at all?
What it does in the debate
Supports Theism
The fitted order of the world, like a watch found on the heath, suggests a hand that designed it: the appearance of design argues for an intelligent author.
- Faced with a watch found on the heath, no one believes it assembled itself: gears fitted to a purpose betray an intelligence that designed them.
- Now nature presents adjustments subtler still: the eye fitted to light, the wing to air, down to the constants of the universe, tuned so finely that the slightest variation would have made all life impossible.
- Like effects, like causes: if the watch's adjustment proves a watchmaker, the incomparably finer adjustment of the world makes an intelligent author at least probable.
Therefore So the world's order likely has an author: the appearance of design is serious evidence for the existence of God.