William Paley famously asked what we might conclude if we were to happen upon a marvelously intricate watch, a functional assembly of parts? While a rock might as well have laid there forever, the functional

assembly of parts in a watch strongly imply a maker.

In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there: I might possibly answer, that, for any thing I knew to the contrary, it had lain there for ever; nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given, — that, for any thing I knew, the watch might have always been there. Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for the stone? why is it not as admissible in the second case, as in the first? For this reason, and for no other, viz. that, when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive (what we could not discover in the stone) that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, e. g. that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that, if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, of a different size from what they are, or placed after any other manner, or in any other order, than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it.

once astronomers understood the motions of the planets, they were well on their way to understanding the structure and history of the universe.

Gonzalez, Guillermo; Richards, Jay W.. The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery (p. 104). Regnery Gateway. Kindle Edition.

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William Paley’s argument from a watch found on a heath is a classic formulation of the teleological argument for the existence of God, presented in his 1802 work, “Natural Theology.” Paley’s argument is often summarized by the analogy of finding a watch while walking across a heath. He argues that if one were to find a watch on the ground, even without knowing anything about its maker or its origin, one would naturally infer that it was designed and made by an intelligent being, due to its complex functionality and purposeful design.

Paley extends this analogy to the natural world, asserting that the complexity and functionality found in nature, much like the workings of a watch, suggest the presence of a designer. He posits that just as the intricate components of a watch are fitted together for a purpose, so too are the parts of living organisms designed with specific functions in mind. This leads to the conclusion that the natural world is the product of an intelligent designer, whom Paley identifies as God.

The argument is structured around the idea that complexity, order, and purpose in a system cannot arise by chance, and therefore the existence of such features in the natural world points to deliberate design. Paley’s argument has been influential in the development of the design argument in the philosophy of religion, and it continues to be a point of reference in debates over the existence of God and the viability of intelligent design versus naturalistic explanations for the complexity of life.

Paley

every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater and more, and that in a degree which exceeds all computation. I mean that the contrivances of nature surpass the contrivances of art, in the complexity, subtlety, and curiosity, of the mechanism; and still more, if possible, do they go beyond them in number and variety: yet, in a multitude of cases, are not less evidently mechanical, not less evidently contrivances, not less evidently accommodated to their end, or suited to their office, than are the most perfect productions of human ingenuity.

I know no better method of introducing so large a subject, than that of comparing a single thing with a single thing: an eye, for example, with, a telescope *. As far as the examination of the instrument goes, there is precisely the same proof that the eye was made for vision, as there is that the telescope was made for assisting it. They are made upon the same principles; both being adjusted to the laws by which the transmission and refraction of rays of light are regulated. I speak not of the origin of the laws themselves; but such laws being fixed, the construction, in both cases, is adapted to them. For instance; these laws require, in order to produce the same effect, that the rays of light, in passing from water into the eye, should be refracted by a more convex surface, than when it passes out of air into the eye. Accordingly we find that the eye of a fish, in that part of it called the crystalline lens, is much rounder than the eye of terrestrial animals. What plainer manifestation of design can there be than this difference? What could a mathematical instrument-maker have done more to shew his knowledge of his principle, his application of that knowledge, his suiting of his means to his end; I will not say to display the compass or excellence of his skill and art, for in these all comparison is indecorous, but to testify counsel, choice, consideration, purpose?

Like cosmic lighthouses, Cepheids communicate through the simple ebb and flow of light: Slower is brighter. Satellite galaxies where stars were still being born provided the critical clues for discovering this period-luminosity (P-L) relationship. Classical Cepheids are massive stars that last only a few million years, and so dwell only where stars are forming. After astronomers had calibrated the P-L relation by observing a few nearby Cepheids,7 Hubble and other astronomers were able to determine the distances to the spiral nebulae. Those Cepheids with the longest period, nearly fifty days, were among the most luminous stars known. For these reasons Cepheids were the first practical extragalactic standard candles.

Gonzalez, Guillermo; Richards, Jay W.. The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery (p. 172). Regnery Gateway. Kindle Edition.

The most basic way to date deposited or grown records is just to count layers. Tree ring counting has been particularly useful for calibrating the carbon-14 dating technique, since dendrochronologists can measure the carbon-14 in individual rings. This is necessary, because carbon-14 isn’t produced in the atmosphere at a constant rate.

Gonzalez, Guillermo; Richards, Jay W.. The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery (pp. 29-30). Regnery Gateway. Kindle Edition.

List of natural timepieces

• Tree rings, a prime field laboratory for the scientists, called dendrochronologists,
• Gonzalez, Guillermo; Richards, Jay W.. The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery (p. 29). Regnery Gateway. Kindle Edition.
• Stratigraphy
• Ice cores
• universe expansion
• Milankovitch cycles, probably the single most useful type of clock for layered deposits.35 These are the various long-term dynamic rhythms, such as the changes in the angle and direction of Earth’s axial tilt and the subtle changes in its orbit. Gonzalez, Guillermo; Richards, Jay W.. The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery (p. 30). Regnery Gateway. Kindle Edition.
• as “palaeobarometers” of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
• Gonzalez, Guillermo; Richards, Jay W.. The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery (p. 29). Regnery Gateway. Kindle Edition.