Natural Theology: or, Evidence of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, collected from the appearances of nature

By William Paley

Book Overview

In Natural Theology, William Paley set out to prove the existence of God from the evidence of the beauty and order of the natural world. Famously beginning by comparing the world to a watch, whose design is self-evident, he goes on to provide examples from biology, anatomy, and astronomy in order to demonstrate the intricacy and ingenuity of design that could only come from a wise and benevolent deity. This new edition, which coincides with the bicentennial of Paley's death, reprints the original text of 1802, which was very influential in its day, and still controversial in ours as we see a resurgence in the debate between"intelligent design" and "creationism." The introduction explains how the book built on the early modern natural theology tradition and why it was so influential. The book also contains two appendixes on Paley's courses, an extended bibliography, and full notes offering further background on the key figures of the day.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199535752
• ISBN13: 9780199535750
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Great Argument

This book is a great example of rational thinking. The way Paley states his argument is flawless, and he uses all the resources available by his time. His arguments, of course, are no longer useful to creationists, this book was written way before Darwin and Wallace structure their theory, but at his time this was a must read. Even Darwin and Wallace read the book lots of years later, when they were students, and this book imprint (at least as I'm concern) a great prejudice Darwin had to surpass to establish his theory. It is so well written, and, again, so well founded, that dismiss it was quite a task. Recently Dawkins wrote a book "The blind Watchmaker" that was inspired by Paley's "Natural Theology", and solidly refutes his arguments (irrefutable in Paley's time, since no scientific evidence or theory had been powerfully establish as to do so). This is a classic book, it is incredibly interesting from a lot of different perspectives, I highly recommend it.

Natural Theology; Evidences of the Existence and ....

I stumbled across this book quite by accident (or divine providence) and now it is one of my greatest treasures. Chapter One lays the foundation for Paley's argument for God's creation serving as the source of life and species. He poses two situations: if one stumbles upon a rock and questions its source, "it has, perhaps, been there forever" seems a rational answer; if one finds a watch laying on the ground, the explanation for the source of the rock seems to fail as an explantion for the source of the watch. The balance of the book is devoted to pointing out the fallacy of assuming that life could emanate from chance happenings. This book is a "must read" for Creation apologists, and it provides a challenging test to those who would rely on evolution as an explanation of the source of life. I would appreciate having any perceptions of flawed logic (by Paley) brought to my attention: jjkaufman@mac.com