Identifying Purposefulness [Index]

During the series addressing Michael Egnor’s Eight Questions for Atheists, I spent a post discussing why there was regularity in nature, and whether that regularity had any implications about a possible design for the world or the existence of a Designer.

Three commenters got into a lengthy argument/discussion in the comments section, and, this week, I’ve invited each of them to write a guest post explaining their take on the issue.  The discussion in the comments section was free ranging and discursive, so, for the sake of clarity, Lukas laid out his chain of reasoning:

1. Assuming careful investigation, we are able to discern purposefulness, and from that to infer a purposeful agent.
2. Careful investigation has demonstrated that the universe appears to have been created purposefully.
3. Therefore the universe was created by a purposeful agent.

The three commenters are focusing on proposition one: explaining whether it is even hypothetically possible to discern purposefulness in the universe and what kind of evidence would suffice.  Thus, they are addressing the standards of evidence that could be applied to proposition two, not evaluating that evidence.

Posts from each of them will go up at 10:15am Mon-Wed this week, and I’ll post a reflection on all three on Thursday.  So, starting tomorrow, the schedule will run:

1. Lukas – “Establishing a Criterion of Purposefulness“
2. March Hare – “You Think You’re So Special?”
3. Eli – “God is an Epileptic Tree“
4. Me – “The Purpose Paradox”

Remember, if you want to respond in detail to something I’ve written, or you’d like to debate a fellow commenter in a longer form, email me at leah(DOT)libresco(AT)gmail(DOT)com to talk about the possibility of writing a guest blog.