The Anglican apologist and archdeacon of Carlisle (from 1780) best remembered today as the framer of the 'divine watchmaker' argument for the existence of God.
Paley was educated in Cambridge and, though not profound or original in thoughts, did much to make the Christian faith understood in plain exposition. His theology are at times suspect, inclining towards Uniterianism, but he was since in his faith. The argument popularly known as the 'divine watchmater' was expounded in his work, Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, first published in 1802. In it he says:
In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, ad were asked how the stone came to be there, I might possibly answer, that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there for ever; nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place. I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given, that, for any thing I knew the watch might have always been there. Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for the stone? Why is it not as admissible in the second case as in the first? For this reason and for no other, namely, that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive (what we could not disover in the stone) that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose.
His other works include Evidences of Christianity (1794) in which he argues that Christianity is the true revelation of God, and Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785) where he deals with the duties of abiding by a natural and revealed religion.
Resources:
Graham A. Cole, "A Note on Paley and His School - Was Sir Leslie Stephen Mistaken?" Tyndale Bulletin 38 (1987): 151-156.☰
Graham A. Cole, "'Who Can Refute a Sneer?' Paley on Gibbon," Tyndale Bulletin 49.1 (1998): 57-70.☰
Graham A. Cole, "Discovering God's Will: Paley's Problem with Special Reference to 'The Christian Sabbath'," Tyndale Bulletin 39 (1988) 125-139.☰
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