VI - The Fortunes and Functions of Natural Theology

Summary

Introduction

In 1802 there appeared what was to be one of the most popular works of philosophical theology in the English language: William Paley’s Natural theology. Its author, an Anglican priest, claimed that there was proof of the unity of God. It came from the “uniformity of plan observable in the universe.” This uniformity was both assumed and confirmed by scientific inquiry. Reaffirming a Newtonian argument for the religious utility of science, Paley underlined his point: “One principle of gravitation causes a stone to drop toward the earth and the moon to wheel round it. One law of attraction carries all the different planets about the sun.” But Paley’s argument was more ambitious than this. It aimed to establish a God with personality – one whose goodness, for example, could be deduced from the fact that, to the necessity of eating food, He had superadded pleasure. Paley was particularly struck by the exquisite mechanisms discernible in the structure of living organisms. The human eye, for example, was so remarkable an instrument that it was as certain it had been made for vision as it was that the telescope had been made for assisting it.

Paley’s argument, that every part of every organism had been meticulously designed for its function, was not merely a piece of academic philosophy. It defined a way of looking at the world that was probably shared by the majority of his contemporaries. Some of his examples were presented in ways that strike us as decidedly quaint. So perfectly designed was the human epiglottis that no alderman had ever choked at a feast! His statement that “it is a happy world, after all,” may have alienated those less privileged than himself. Yet, despite the threat to established Christianity from deism, materialism, and agnosticism, the union between science and religion forged by arguments from design proved remarkably resilient. Hume may have emasculated the argument for the benefit of fellow skeptics; but the opinion of his fellow Scotsman Thomas Reid (1710–96) must also be taken into account. According to Reid, the design argument had always made the strongest impression on thinking minds. With the advance of scientific knowledge, it had gained in strength. Paley exuded that same confidence.