Editing Teleological argument (section)

=== Derham's natural theology ===
Starting in 1696 with his ''Artificial Clockmaker'', [[William Derham]] published a stream of teleological books. The best known of these are ''Physico-Theology'' (1713); ''[[Astro-Theology]]'' (1714); and ''Christo-Theology'' (1730). ''Physico-Theology'', for example, was explicitly subtitled "A demonstration of the being and attributes of God from his works of creation". A [[Natural theology|natural theologian]], Derham listed scientific observations of the many variations in nature, and proposed that these proved "the unreasonableness of infidelity". At the end of the section on Gravity for instance, he writes: "What else can be concluded, but that all was made with manifest Design, and that all the whole Structure is the Work of some intelligent Being; some Artist, of Power and Skill equivalent to such a Work?"<ref>Derham, W., ''Physico-Theology'', 1713, p. 36.</ref> Also, of the "sense of sound" he writes:<ref>Derham, W., ''Physico-Theology'', 1713, pp. 131–132.</ref>
{{blockquote|text=For who but an intelligent Being, what less than an omnipotent and infinitely wise God could contrive, and make such a fine Body, such a Medium, so susceptible of every Impression, that the Sense of Hearing hath occasion for, to empower all Animals to express their Sense and Meaning to others.}}

Derham concludes: "For it is a Sign a Man is a wilful, perverse Atheist, that will impute so glorious a Work, as the Creation is, to any Thing, yea, a mere Nothing (as Chance is) rather than to God.<ref>[[William Derham|Derham, William]]. 1713. [https://books.google.com/books/about/Physico_theology_Or_A_Demonstration_of_t.html?id=6Tm2CZLTl0wC ''Physico-Theology'']. p. 328.</ref> Weber (2000) writes that Derham's ''Physico-Theology'' "directly influenced" William Paley's later work.<ref>Weber, A. S. 2000. ''Nineteenth-Century Science: An Anthology''. [[Broadview Press]]. p. 18.</ref>

The power, and yet the limitations, of this kind of reasoning is illustrated in microcosm by the history of [[La Fontaine's Fables|La Fontaine's]] fable of [[The Acorn and the Pumpkin]], which first appeared in France in 1679. The light-hearted anecdote of how a doubting peasant is finally convinced of the wisdom behind creation arguably undermines this approach.<ref>Peter France, "The poet as a teacher" in ''Poetry in France: metamorphoses of a muse'', Edinburgh U 1992, p.&nbsp;138</ref> However, beginning with [[Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea|Anne Finch]]'s conversion of the story into a polemic against atheism, it has been taken up by a succession of moral writers as presenting a valid argument for the proposition that "The wisdom of God is displayed in creation."<ref>Spirago, Francis, and James Joseph Baxter. 1904. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=--ELAwAAQBAJ Anecdotes and Examples: Illustrating the Catholic Catechism]''. New York: [[Benziger Bros]]. pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=--ELAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22the+acorn+and+the+pumpkin%22&pg=PA39 39]–40.</ref>