William
Paley
Imagine that you are
walking along in a
field. On the ground
you see a metal object,
you pick it up. It is a
watch.
You examine it. How did
this watch get here? Did
it just grow in the field?
Well, this is obviously
nonsense, it can’t have
come from the field! It
is ticking, and telling
the time accurately. It
is very complex.
This tells you that it is
made to do a particular
job: it has been made for
a purpose!
You can tell that is
has been
DESIGNED
The fact that it has been
designed to serve a
purpose implies that
there is a
designer
The designer has
designed the watch to
be made to fulfil the
purpose of telling the
time!
Paley says that
this is true of
other things as
well.
The Human Eye is a very
complex thing; it takes in
light, and transforms this
into electrical signals for
the brain. It can see in
very low light, see
millions of colours, and
focus at a great variety of
distances. It is far more
complex than any camera.
So, Paley says, if the eye is
such a complex and
efficient thing, doing such
an effective job; it is like
the watch. It has purpose.
As it has purpose, and is
complex, it must have been
designed!
Our previous argument
shows that, if there is
design, there must be a
designer. In this case, the
designer must be:
But do we need God to
explain this
complicated and
effective thing, the
eye?
Not necessarily. It could happen just by chance!
It would be very unlikely to
roll a six on a dice one
hundred times in a row, but if
you rolled the dice for twenty
thousand years, you are
making it more likely that it
will occur!
Given enough time, any combination
might occur.
This is how evolution works;
lots of things develop by
chance, and the best ones stay,
and get better. Over millions
of years it is entirely possible
that something really
complex, that fulfils a
purpose, like the eye, could
evolve!