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The Works of William Paley, D.D.: Natural Theology
This is a copy of the original book. In this series, we are bringing old books back into print using our own state-of-the-art techniques. Generally, these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way that the author intended. However, as we are working with old material, so occasionally there may be certain imperfections within the text. We are so pleased to ensure these classics are available again for generations to come.
418 pages, Paperback
First published July 15, 2015
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July 19, 2024
ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL "CLASSICS" OF PHILOSOPHICAL APOLOGETICS
William Paley (1743-1805) was an English Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He also wrote ‘The Evidences of Christianity.’ This was his last book, first published in 1802.
He begins with his famous "watchmaker" argument, in which he supposes that if he "pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there, I might possibly answer, that for any thing I knew... it had lain there for ever... But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground... I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given... Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for the stone...? For this reason... that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive... that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose... This mechanism being observed... the inference we think is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker---that there must have existed... an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer, who comprehended its construction and designed its use." (Pg. 9-10)
He then points out that "Nor is anything gained by running the difficulty farther back... by supposing the watch before us to have been produced from another watch... and so on indefinitely... Contrivance is still unaccounted for. We still want a contriver." (Pg. 16) He poses the objection, "Why resort to contrivance when power is omnipotent?" He says, "one answer is this: It is only by the display of contrivance that the existence, the agency, the wisdom of the Deity COULD be testified to his rational creatures." (Pg. 34)
Later, he deals with counter-argument (that would become stronger with the 1859 publication of Darwin's 'Origin of Species') that such contrivance might have been produced by chance: "Universal experience is against it. What does chance ever do for us? In the human body... chance... may produce a wen, a wart, a mole, a pimple, but never an eye. Among inanimate substances, a clod, a pebble, a liquid drop might be; but never was a watch, a telescope, an organized body of any kind... the effect of chance." (Pg. 49)
He further argues for the "goodness of the deity" based on the fact that "the Deity has superadded pleasure to animal sensations beyond what was necessary for any other purpose, or when the purpose... might have been effected by the operation of pain." (Pg. 295) His ultimate conclusion is, "The marks of design are too strong to be gotten over. Design must have had a designer. That designer must have been a person. That person is God." (Pg. 285)
Paley's book is essential reading (even if one is only reading it with a desire to refute it) for all philosophers, theologians, and scientists.
William Paley (1743-1805) was an English Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He also wrote ‘The Evidences of Christianity.’ This was his last book, first published in 1802.
He begins with his famous "watchmaker" argument, in which he supposes that if he "pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there, I might possibly answer, that for any thing I knew... it had lain there for ever... But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground... I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given... Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for the stone...? For this reason... that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive... that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose... This mechanism being observed... the inference we think is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker---that there must have existed... an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer, who comprehended its construction and designed its use." (Pg. 9-10)
He then points out that "Nor is anything gained by running the difficulty farther back... by supposing the watch before us to have been produced from another watch... and so on indefinitely... Contrivance is still unaccounted for. We still want a contriver." (Pg. 16) He poses the objection, "Why resort to contrivance when power is omnipotent?" He says, "one answer is this: It is only by the display of contrivance that the existence, the agency, the wisdom of the Deity COULD be testified to his rational creatures." (Pg. 34)
Later, he deals with counter-argument (that would become stronger with the 1859 publication of Darwin's 'Origin of Species') that such contrivance might have been produced by chance: "Universal experience is against it. What does chance ever do for us? In the human body... chance... may produce a wen, a wart, a mole, a pimple, but never an eye. Among inanimate substances, a clod, a pebble, a liquid drop might be; but never was a watch, a telescope, an organized body of any kind... the effect of chance." (Pg. 49)
He further argues for the "goodness of the deity" based on the fact that "the Deity has superadded pleasure to animal sensations beyond what was necessary for any other purpose, or when the purpose... might have been effected by the operation of pain." (Pg. 295) His ultimate conclusion is, "The marks of design are too strong to be gotten over. Design must have had a designer. That designer must have been a person. That person is God." (Pg. 285)
Paley's book is essential reading (even if one is only reading it with a desire to refute it) for all philosophers, theologians, and scientists.
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