Explain The Main Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Design Argument For The Existence Of God

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1. (a) Explain the main strengths and weaknesses of the design argument for the existence of God. (21 marks)

The argument surrounding the existence of God has been a topic which has polarised society for thousands of years. The fact that humans today continue to contemplate our origins in the same way that ancient philosophers such as Cicero did suggests that it remains a poignant and important debate, and will continue to be such as long as we retain the instinctive human desire to continuously seek out knowledge.

Trying to pinpoint exactly where we came from, whether it be in the form of a deity or natural evolution untouched by divine intervention, is a quest which will broaden our perspectives and therefore may help us to understand what our purpose in life is. By starting with the beginning of the universe itself, we each develop a personal and individual understanding of our purpose depending on our standpoint: he who is a believer in the God of Classical Theism may interpret life’s purpose and meaning differently to an individual strictly believing in secular evidence such as the Big Bang and Darwin’s theory of natural selection. As humans, we can never truly understand all that there is about the superhuman, so we must form our own beliefs, using the theories put forward by past philosophers as evidence for our faith.

To Cicero,
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Pasquini, pg. 74). Everything in nature, therefore, is directed to its end-point by an intelligent, superhuman designer,