argument from design

It has been claimed that the modern argument from design first appears in John Wilkins, one of the founders of the Royal Society, in Of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion, published posthumously in 1675.

The corpuscular philosophy leads to atheism if it is combined with the claim that the universe arises from chance, but not if this further step is blocked, as Boyle sought to block it, by the argument from design.

Newtonianism was thus only conceivable within a culture which had elaborated and become dependent upon the argument from design.

As for the argument from design, it was fundamentally different from the traditional Thomistic argument, which held that the universe was imbued with purpose, and that the ultimate purpose was to be found in God.

If Newtonianism destroyed the corpuscular philosophy, it greatly strengthened the argument from design.