The most famous form of this argument was put forward by William Paley (1734 – 1805), who employed the watchmaker analogy. Since every watch has a watchmaker, and since the universe is exceedingly more complex in its operation than a watch, it follows that there must be a Maker of the universe. The teleological argument reasons from design to an Intelligent Designer. It works as follows:
All designs imply a designer.
There is great design in the universe.
Therefore, there must be a Great Designer of the universe.
When we see encounter complex design of any kind, we immediately assume there is a designer behind it. Experience teaches us that complex design is the product of the mind of a designer. For example, watches imply watchmakers, buildings imply architects and paintings imply artists. All coded messages, language and information imply an intelligent sender. Furthermore, the greater the design, the greater the designer. The more complex the design, the greater the intelligence required to produce it. Birds construct nests but could never assemble the Luas line. A thousand monkeys sitting at typewriters for millions of years could never produce Hamlet. Only Shakespeare could pull it off. Similarly, the complex design of the universe implies a designer of vast intelligence.
Complex design entails specified complexity. A crystal and a snowflake have specificity but not complexity. They have the same basic patterns repeated over and over. A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. It has complexity but not specificity. However, a living cell has both specificity and complexity. This kind of complexity could never be produced by purely natural laws. It is always the result of an intelligent being.
Living cells contain the same kind of complexity encountered in human language, engineering and technological design. Letter sequence in the four-letter genetic alphabet is identical to that in a written language. The amount of complex information in a simple one-cell is greater than that found in Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. The presence of information, tailored into the fabric of the cosmos, suggests the presence of a Supreme Mind. On a basic human level, complex information and organized language always suggests to us the presence and activity of a thinking, creative intelligence. Why should we not apply the same criteria to the information and complexity encountered in the cellular fabric of the vast cosmos?
The genetic information of the human brain expressed in bits is probably comparable to the total number of connections among neurons – about 100 trillion; 1014 bits. If written out in English, that much information would fill roughly 20 million volumes. Thus, the equivalent of 20 million volumes is locked away in every human head. The brain is a vast, expansive labyrinth of information contained in a very small space. The neuro-chemistry of the brain contains the circuitry of a machine more wonderful than anything humans have ever devised. If the simplest computer requires a designer, then why not the immensely intricate marvel of the human brain?
In the same way, when we encounter any kind of human artifact, we immediately assume there is intelligence behind it. For example, whether we pick up an i-phone or whether we dig up the ancient remains of a by-gone human settlement (unearthing for example, axe heads or pottery) we immediately assume such things are the product of creative intelligence. They bear the hallmarks of design; they were created with particular purposes in mind. We do not for a second assume that the complexity and specificity of these objects are the result of chance processes that just happen to form them. We know that they are the product of human intelligence and design.
In the same vein, when we encounter patterns of design in the created world, it is illogical to force an interpretation that simply would not apply to the i-phone or the axe-heads. If the created world bears the hallmarks of design, it is not illogical to posit the existence of a creative intelligence behind it. In fact, it is quite rational and more than that, it is basically intuitive. The very existence of a universe so incredibly complex and nuanced demands the existence of an immensely intelligent creator. To accept that the i-phone and the axe-heads are the product of intentional, intelligent design and then, in the same breath, to insist that the universe is the product of random, unintentional, blind processes is a contradiction in terms. The universe bears precisely the same marks of complexity and specificity (only infinitely more so) as the designed implements of human technology. So then, if the i-phone and the axe-heads are the product of ordered, intentional, intelligent design, then why not the vast and immensely intricate marvel of the universe?
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