AQA Religious Studies Module 6 Teleological Arguement Help!

Hi. I'm currently set to take the aqa religious studies exam on the 3rd of June, and i feel reasonably confident about my modules 1, 4 and 6.

If any body wants some useful notes please just ask me as i have about 100 pages typed up.

HOWEVER

Im having alot of trouble with the final part of Module 6 - The teleological arguement.

I pretty much just dont have any knowedge and was wondering if somebody could point me towards the right sort of information to learn. I would like to, if possible be told how to answer this kind of a question:

3 (a) Outline the design arguments for the existence of God as presented by both Aquinas and
Swinburne. (15 marks)

(b) Outline the ways in which science has challenged the design arguments, and assess how
successful these challenges are. (25 marks)

Any help or direction would be much appreciated,

Ed

Reply 1

fait

It would be nice if you can send me those notes!

If you want, I can send you the mark scheme for that. I'll try to find my notes on teleological argument, haven't revised unit 6 in depth to be honest. =[

Reply 2

Flaime

OP

Bump

Can somebody please explain Swinburne's temporal order arguement?

Reply 3

mayamaya

Hi! I'm new here...
Thanks so much for the notes, you just saved me as i have exams 2nd, 3rd and 4th and haven't done close to enough for any of them :s-smilie:

I haven't got notes for the teleological arguement but this is what i know for the brief outline:

-It is 'a posteriori' = the proof relies on evidence
-2 parts of the arguement:
Design qua regularity - the universe behaves according to some order/rule
Design qua purpose - universe was designed to fill some purpose

Aquinas - Design qua regularity - inductive
- his 5th way, (purpose), for non-intellegent, irrational matter to behave in a beneficial way, there needs to be an intellegent power to bring this state of affairs about = God

Paley - analogical
1st part - Design qua purpose
Analogy of the watch
- something as intricate/cleverly designed as a watch must have had a designer and creater
- therefore, same as universe.
-there is evidence of design, everything has been made to fulfill a purpose

2nd part - design qua regularity
-regularity of the universe is evidence there is a designing creator
-paley used examples of; motion of the planets in the solar system, relationship between planets and gravity etc.

Modern versions:

Swinburne - qua regularity - inductive, analogical
-universe could be ordered or chaotic
-fact it's ordered can't be mere chance
therefore there must be a matter of probabilities..
- size of universe makes it unlikely it just happened
-universe operated by a series of laws
-these laws don't account for the ordered way the universe operates.
- the high degree of order in the universe if evidence of a personal, conscious choice of God

Criticisms:
Hume
- if a person says there is order and purpose in the universe all this can lead to is the conclusion that there is order and purpose, nothing else!
To assume there's a god behind this presumed order is an illogical step
-the world is inconsistent/flawed - so if god is designer he must be imperfect and flawed, therefore not the all powerful benevolent god we think he is, because of all the evil and suffering in the world

OK that's as far as i've got i'm afraid. Hope it's of some help! :smile:

Reply 4

Flaime

OP

Ok great thanks alot!

I think ive got some of that in my notes and i THINK i understand most of it after some research.

Thanks for your help!

Btw im surprised nobody else has thanked me for the notes, i thought they were pretty decent!

Reply 5

fait

Your notes were fantastic made me worry as hell because I thought the course was alot shorter than that.

I still haven't revised properly. Planning on finishing revising Unit 4 and Unit 1 today, and Unit 6 after my maths exam. 3 days of hell coming up.

AQA Religious Studies Module 6 Teleological Arguement Help!

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending