The Watch Implies a Watchmaker

William Paley saw the appearance of design as implying a designer, and Darwin appears to admit the appearance of design.


Folksonomies: evolution creationism

The Watch Implies a Watchmaker

When we come to inspect the watch, we perceive . . . that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, e.g. that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that, if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, if a different size from what they are, or placed after any other manner, or in any other order than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it. . . . Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater and more, and that in a degree which exceeds all computation.

Notes:

The original quote that inspired the argument still in use by creationists today.

Folksonomies: philosophy creationism origins

Concession

Darwin Considers the Question of a Creator

How have all those exquisite adaptations of one part of the organization to another part, and to the conditions of life, and of one distinct organic being, been perfected? We see these beautiful coadaptations most plainly in the woodpecker and missletoe; and only a little less plainly in the humblest parasite which clings to the hairs of a quadruped or feathers of a bird; in the structure of the beetle which dives though the water; in the plumed seed which is wafted by the gentlest breeze; in short, we see beautiful adaptations everywhere and in every part of the organic world.

Notes:

He sees adaptations as giving the appearance of a designer.

Folksonomies: evolution darwin creationism