Re: The ACLU Challenge to Intelligent Design

TomS wrote:
> "On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 08:38:18 +1000, in article
> <dhchgt$2kke$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, John Wilkins stated..."
>
>>TomS wrote:
>>
>>>"On Tue, 27 Sep 2005 00:05:09 -0500, in article
>>><y6adncYRDZ-YTqXeRVn-gA@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, Jim Lovejoy stated..."
>>>[...snip...]
>>>
>>>
>>>>Paley Published _Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and
>>>>Attributes of the Deity collected from the Appearances of Nature_ in 1802.
>>>>That's over 200 years ago.
>>>>
>>>>In that book, he described the 'Watchmaker Analogy', the parent of
>>>>intelligent design.
>>>
>>>[...snip...]
>>>
>>> Not that what I have to say has any relevance to your point,
>>>but in the spirit of t.o ...
>>>
>>> The idea of a timepiece needing a designer goes back at least
>>>as far as Cicero (106-43 BCE), and it was a commonplace argument in
>>>the 18th century. Just to mention one famous 18th century person,
>>>Voltaire (1694-1778)
>>>
>>> The "analogy of design" was all the rage in the 18th century,
>>>and was critically discussed by David Hume (1711-1776) and
>>>Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Which book was Cicero's was in, do you know?
>>
>
>
> De Natura Deorum, Book 2, Chapter 34, Section 87-88
>
> "If at the sight of a statue or painted picture you know that art has
> been employed, and from the distant view of the course of a ship feel
> sure that it is made to move by art and intelligence, and if you
> understand on looking at a horologe, whether one marked out with lines,
> or working by means of water, that the hours are indicated by art and
> not by chance, with what possible consistency can you suppose that the universe
> which contains these same products of art, and their
> constructors, and all things, is destitute of forethought and
> intelligence? Why, if any one were to carry into Scythia or Britain the
> globe which our friend Posidonius has lately constructed, each one of
> the revolutions of which brings about the same movement in the sun and
> moon and five wandering stars as is brought about each day and night
> in the heavens, no one in those barbarous countries would doubt that
> that globe was the work of intelligence."
>
> <http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Cicero0070/NatureOfGods/HTMLs/0040_Pt03_Book2.html#hd_lf040.label.159>
>
> The two kinds of "horologe", I take it, would be a sundial and a
> water-clock (clepsydra); and the "globe" of Posidonius, a kind of
> orrery.
>
>
Bless you, my son! More grist for the rhetorical mill!

I checked On the Nature of Gods but couldnt locate it myself...

--
John S. Wilkins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Biohumanities Project
University of Queensland - Blog: evolvethought.blogspot.com
"Darwin's theory has no more to do with philosophy than any other
hypothesis in natural science." Tractatus 4.1122

.

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