Abstract

The teleological argument has always been enjoying a very much interest by philosophers and scholars of Scholasticism, especially the Westerns, since the most ancient times and up to the present day. In fact, the answers to the questions aroused about this kind of argument is still widely preoccupying the minds of scholars and researchers of religious philosophy and neo-theology, such as questions about the essence of the teleological argument as a conception, the divisions and parts of this argument, and the method this argument provides overwhelming evidence on the existence of God. In its capacity as one of the most important and dexterous proofs provided by many people for proving the existence of God, the teleological argument is traced back to the deepest point in the history of humanity, since it is at least as ancient as man’s existence on the earth. Since the first day human beings witnessed the big variety of the well-designed and well-coordinated phenomena in nature, they started searching for the secret beyond such design and harmony, thus asking: Was it that these very parts created harmony amongst themselves and produced such well-designed order, or was there a universal designer who, out of an order that he created and fashioned, geometrized and designed these parts? After reviewing a number of the different opinions about an analysis of design as a concept, its different parts, and its method of argumentation and its distinctive features, the essay attempts to study the different opinions of the Western thinkers about the form and discussions of the teleological argument.