[lbo-talk] The Argument from Design and Polytheism

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

andie nachgeborenen andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com, Mon Dec 13 
07:32:17 PST 2004:
>Actuyally it is worse than that. The regress really applies tas an 
>objection to the first cause argument more than to the argument from 
>design (AD). The AD is susceptible, however to the following 
>objection, adapted from Hume.
>
>The AD is an argument from analogy. Just as watches don't just 
>happen because they are so complex the odds are impossibly small of 
>their parts coming to be and interlocking in the right way by 
>chance, so the universe or evolved life forms or whatever is so 
>complex, then it must have been designed that way . .
>. 
>
>But if the explanation of complexity requires intentional design by 
>analogy, intentional design normally occurs with a division of labor 
>-- watches are the product of many hands, not one.
>
>So, the universe or evolved life forms must have involved more hands 
>than the Manhattan Project. Engineering shops. Mines. Mills. 
>Shippers. Warehouses. Unions. Managers. Skilled and unskilled labor. 
>(We're talking about the divine, so we  will assume that this is a 
>cooperative arrangement without bosses, wage-laborers, or celestial 
>exploitation.)
>
>Therefore the AD is an argument for polytheism. Do you believe in 
>Heiphestos's workshop?
>
>Gimme that old time religion:
>We will pray with Aphrodite
>Cause she wears that see-thru nightie
>And it's good enough for me!
>Gimme that old time religion
>Gimme that old time religion
>Gimme that old time religion
>And it's good enough for me
>
>(A song I heard from Peter Seeger one time.)

I love that!  Someone should design a satiric Polytheistic 
Intelligent Design website, with animation of a dancing Aphrodite in 
"that see-thru nightie."  A lot of monotheists who Google 
"intelligent design" can happen upon it.  :->
-- 
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* "Proud of Britain": <http://www.proudofbritain.net/ > and 
<http://www.proud-of-britain.org.uk/>