©2002 Ed Buckner, Council for Secular Humanism, www.secularhumanism.org
Well designed compared to what? The universe is terribly complex, vastly interesting, awe-inspiring—but, as far as we can tell, it is the only one. Since we can all imagine a better-designed universe, even though none of us is divine (ask the folks in areas now suffering from floods or from droughts if they couldn’t design a better water distribution system about now, or contemplate your own appendix or your poor pet’s fleas or West-Nile-virus-bearing mosquitoes), it’s a little hard to know if it’s “well designed.”
And, even if it is, wouldn’t a God necessarily be even better designed—so who designed Him, and then who designed that Designer, ad infinitum?
Most people who bring this one up have in mind some variation of a creationist argument in response to Darwin or other evolutionary theorists. The one usually credited with popularizing or developing this version is William Paley, who described it in Natural Theology (1802). Daniel C. Dennett (1995) argues convincingly that Hume anticipated Paley, having Cleanthes, one of his (Hume’s) three fictional characters in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779/modern reprint, Prometheus Books), lay out the argument.
In any case, the real problem is that design and a “Designer” with a purpose are not necessarily connected. The natural forces at work in the universe do change things, and at least in the case of organic matter, those changes are in a particular direction, or directions. But that does not imply purpose or an intentional destination. Organisms with inheritable characteristics that work better in whatever environment they are in are more likely to survive and reproduce—so “Nature,” or evolutionary forces, do design organisms that are increasingly well adapted and thus are often increasingly complex. Given a few million generations over a few billion years, such design forces can create an astonishing variety of interesting products—but that in no way suggests an omnipotent, omniscient, purposeful Creator.
For much more on the subject, see:
Dennett, Daniel C. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, Simon and Schuster, 1995, especially pp. 28-34 and 68-80.
Dawkins, Richard. The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design, W.W. Norton & Company, 1996.
Hume, David. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Prometheus Books, modern reprint of 1779 work.
Paley, William. Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity; the 12 Edition (1809), is available online from the University of Michigan, at http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/p/pd-modeng/ pd-modeng-idx?type=HTML&rgn=TEI.2&byte=53049319
Pigliucci, Massimo. Tales of the Rational, Freethought Press, 2000.
Stein, Gordon, ed. An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism, Prometheus Books, 1980, pp. 55-59 and 88-104.
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