Notable criticism of the argument from design

Various philosophers and apologists have criticised the argument from design in their own particular style. There have also been many significant proponents of the argument.

David Hume

David Hume's book Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a seminal work in criticising the argument from design.

Bertrand Russell

From "Why I Am Not A Christian" in Bertrand Russell On God and Religion (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1986), P. 62:

"Really I am not much impressed with the people who say: "Look at me: I am such a splendid product that there must have been design in the universe." I am not very much impressed by the splendor of those people. Moreover, if you accept the ordinary laws of science, you have to suppose that human life and life in general on this planet will die out in due course: it is merely a flash in the pan; it is a stage in the decay of the solar system; at a certain stage of decay you get the sort of conditions and temperature and so forth which are suitable to protoplasm, and there is life for a short time in the life of the whole solar system. You see in the moon the sort of thing to which the earth is tending -- something dead, cold, and lifeless."

Einstein

"What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the World."

C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain, 1940, pp. 14-16:

"You ask me to believe that this is the work of a benevolent and omnipotent spirit, I reply that all the evidence points in the opposite direction. Either there is no spirit behind the universe, or else a spirit indifferent to good and evil, or else an evil spirit ... [Regarding the basis of religion, reasoning] from ... this world to the goodness and wisdom [or intelligence] of the Creator [is] preposterous."