@ Dr. Heinz Lycklama
An Early Argument From Design
Rev. William Paley in Natural Theology, 1802:
"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 anything I knew to the contrary it had
lain
there forever; 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 anything 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? For this reason, and none other, viz., that
when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive what we could not discover in the
stone,
that its several parts were put together for a purpose."