ABSTRACT
In his Natural Theology of 1802, the English theologian William Paley advanced the "argument from design". The living world, he argues, provides compelling evidence of being designed by an omniscient and omnipotent Creator. Paley's first example is the human eye that he compares with a telescope: they are both made upon the same principles and bear a complete resemblance to one another, in their configuration, position of the lenses, and effectiveness in bringing each pencil of light to a point at the right distance from the lens. Could, he asks, these attributes be in the eye without purpose? "There cannot be design without designer; contrivance, without a contriver."
