The physical-teleological argument does not prove the existence of a creator god, but only of an ordering demiurge.
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
This argument is used in the debate Does God exist?.
This argument is an objection to God gives an account of the world's master plan.
Summary
The universe could have been organized from the outside by a Demiurge, who would not have created matter from nothing and would not have been all-powerful.
Quotes
“According to this reasoning, the finality and harmony of so many of nature's dispositions would only prove the contingency of form, but not that of matter, i.e. the substance of the world. [...] This proof could therefore at most demonstrate an architect of the world, who would always be very limited by the aptitudes of the matter he would be working with, but not a creator of the world.”
Emmanuel Kant, Critique of pure reason.