ABSTRACT
John Henry Newman's argument from conscience to the existence of God is an example of a teleological argument because it argues from structure or design, in this case the structure of the operation of the human mind, to the existence of a superior being, God. The design of an object, in Newman's case - the human mind - incorporates its end or purpose, its final cause. Newman's argument, then, states that the human mind, in the operation of the conscience, "carries on our minds to a Being exterior to ourselves". This argument proves that the very nature of the conscience, one of the acts of the human mind, as a sanction of right conduct, implies the recognition of an intelligent being, a Supreme Governor, a Judge, holy, just, powerful, all-seeing, retributive. Newman says in his Idea of a University that "physical science is in a certain sense atheistic, for the very reason it is not theology".
