ABSTRACT
Widely thought to have been demolished by Hume and Darwin, the teleological argument for God’s existence came roaring back into prominence during the latter half of the last century. Defenders of the argument earlier in the same century appealed to what F.R.Tennant called “wider teleology,” which emphasizes the necessary conditions for the existence and evolution of intelligent life, rather than specific instances of purposive design. Unfortunately, they could speak of this wider teleology for the most part only in generalities, for example, “the thickness of the earth’s crust, the quantity of water, the amount of carbon dioxide,” and so forth, but could furnish few details to describe this alleged teleology (Tennant 1935, vol. 2:87).
