Analytical and Critical questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analytical and Critical questions - Essay Example This is circumstantial evidence for a Creator, in this case of the watchmaker. There are numerous similar examples offered by Paley to support his claims. The most important implication is that science is subservient to religion. But the greatest rebuttal to this assertion would come in the form of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution through Natural Selection a century after the publication of Natural Theology. The arguments offered by Paley are very eloquent and persuasive, yet not decisive. His assumptions and premises are dubious in many instances. To be fair to Paley, writing as he did a century before the arrival of Charles Darwin in the scientific scene, his arguments were handicapped by the lack of evidences to the contrary that are offered in abundance by Darwin. Yes, many natural phenomena can be explained scientifically without resort to argument from divine intervention. Perhaps, Paley’s passion for religion has biased his views. By virtue of stating a strong thesis, the author is compelled to look and select evidence in support of it. Perhaps a free exposition of the subject would have lead to a balanced rhetoric and findings. Paley’s Natural Theology is relevant today as a specimen of logical rigour and refined styles of argument. Its thesis has steadily lost relevance since the age of the Enlightenment and that trend continues today. Richard Dawkins’ main argument is that the forces of evolution give an illusion of deliberate design, whereas in truth, they were shaped by gradual and random mutations sifted by the filters of natural selection. Drawing on the analogy of the watchmaker by William Paley, Dawkins produces his polemic by systematically dismantling the theory by design as applicable to life forms on earth. Dawkins shows that random mutations at the level of the DNA, when filtered and selected under the process of