Re: Randomness from full disclosure--Paley's watch not original

>>> Rich Blinne <e-lists@blinne.org> 01/28/04 20:15 PM >>>wrote:
We need to go back to the arguments concerning theistic proofs in late
18th and early 19th Centuries. David Hume wanted to deny causality
because of its link to the so-called teleological and cosmological
proofs for the existence of God. William Paley picked up on this in his
1802 work, Natural Theology. This is the origin of the now-famous watch
analogy.

Ted writes: These final two sentences are "common knowledge," but a few years ago I found evidence that strongly suggests this is wrong. I have not published this evidence as yet, although I did mention it in a paper I gave at a conference on ID a few years ago, a paper that I might perhaps publish in PSCF. True enough, Paley is famous for using the analogy of the watch found lying on the landscape. But almost certainly he took it from someplace else that we don't yet know about, someplace more than a century older. Consider this passage from Boyle's unpublished manuscripts:

There is not the same difficulty to be urg'd against such a Beliefe of the existence of a Deity, as serves to require and warrant our worshiping and obeying him; that there is to be urg'd against some abstruse points relateing to the Theory of the Divine Essence and Attributes. For to know there is a God that has made the world, it may suffice to know, that the world, which is admirably fram'd and contriv'd, cannot have made it selfe; or been the Product of blind Chance: and therefore must have been made by another: who haveing Impress'd such conspicuous Characters of Wisdom, Power, and Goodnes on his Workes; warrants us to conclude that the supreame cause of such effects is both Wise, Potent, and Good, and as such, deserves our Thankes and Adoration; thô there may be many things in his most singular nature and Attributes, which we cannot clearly conceive. As if an Indian or Chinois, should have found a Watch cast on shore in some Trunke or Casket of some shipwrackt Euro!
pean vessel; by observing the motions and figure of it, he would quickly conclude that 'twas made by some intelligent & skillfull Being; thô he would not understand why the parts were made just of such a number, such shapes, and such sizes, & put together after that determinate manner; nor how the whole Engine, whose Springe lyes conceal'd in the Barrell, is made to move so regularly; Thus if a Country fellow light on a Letter whereof the greatest part is written in Cypher, he will conclude that 'twas some rationall Creature that writt it; thô there by diverse words and perhaps clauses, in it, of which he perceives he can give himselfe no account.

Thus, Paley's watch rested in Boyle's pocket. Since this passage was not published by Boyle, and I am not aware of a published passage similar to this one (it's possible that it exists among the 2.8 million words Boyle published, my memory is not infallible), we cannot assume a direct influence on Paley. But the remarkable similarity is clear enough (we might call this evidence for "intelligent design", it's non-random and highly specified) to assume that other authors were using this analogy long before Paley. We just don't yet know exactly who they were.

ted
Received on Thu Jan 29 07:12:12 2004