Since the Middle Ages, discussion of the religious " argument from design " or " teleological argument " in theology, with its concept of " intelligent design, " has persistently referred to the theistic Creator God.
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Geology, to Miller, offered a better version of the argument from design than William Paley could provide, and answered the objections of sceptics, by showing that living species did not arise by chance or by impersonal law.
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The book also contains other essays in which Russell considers a number of logical arguments for the existence of God, including the first cause argument, the natural-law argument, the argument from design, and moral arguments.
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Jacquelot used an argument from design in his " Dissertations sur l'existence de Dieu ", defending divine providence and revealed religion : observation can and will support the purposive nature of the creation of animals and Man.
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For philosopher James D . Madden, it is " Hume, rivaled only by Darwin, [ who ] has done the most to undermine in principle our confidence in arguments from design among all figures in the Western intellectual tradition ."
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The growing importance of natural theology & mdash; partly a response to the rise of mechanical philosophy & mdash; was also an important impetus for the growth of natural history ( though it also further entrenched the argument from design ).
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In theology Herbart held the argument from design to be as valid of divine activity as for human, and to justify the belief in a supersensible real, concerning which, however, exact knowledge is neither tenable nor on practical grounds desirable.
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In the traditional guise of the argument from design, it is easily today's most popular argument offered in favour of the existence of God and it is seen, by an amazingly large number of theists, as completely and utterly convincing.
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The American philosopher of religion Dallas Willard, reflecting on the book, denies the connection of evolution to the validity of arguments from design to God : whereas, he asserts, Dawkins seems to consider the arguments to rest entirely on that basis.
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Thus, the argument from design actually explains nothing-" shooting itself in the foot . " While it is true that designoid objects cannot come about by chance, evolution provides a non-random method of creation-namely, natural selection.
