Paley's argument of design
...lly our existence. Paley gives several reasons for his argument for the existence of God. One of the reasons it is not so apparent that nature is by design compared to the watch is that we have a greater understanding of the mechanism for the watch and its purpose than we do for the complexity of nature. However, Paley argues that it would not “weaken the conclusion” that we didn’t understand the making of the watch, its inner workings, its purpose or a designer capable of making it. It also would not weaken our conclusion if the watch didn’t actually work perfectly, if at all. Nor whether we understood if it had any design at all. He further argues that it would not matter whether we knew how everything fit together to effect the purpose of the watch; the watch may have a few parts that we had not yet discovered or how they contribute to the overall mechanism that makes the watch work. We would have no doubt that the watch was designed even if some parts were missing or did not function because we would understand the “utility or intention” of the watch. Nature is no different, just more complex than the watch. We would also arrive at the same conclusion of contrivance even if we did not understand how every single part operated to make the watch work because the indication of contrivance remained. Further, no one would mistake the watch to have come to that configuration on its own; nobody would believe that the watch was one of several “combinations of material forms” that just happen exist. Moreover, it would not be satisfactory to hear that the watch had come together by the principle of order according to Paley; the watch o...