Natural Theology of William Paley and the Neo-Creationism
The article is devoted to English natural theology of the XVII-XVIII centuries and especially to its the most prominent author William Paley, the priest of the Church of England, the philosopher, the apologist for Christianity and the doctor of divinity at Cambridge University, the author of the fundamental work "Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity". Paley's books were very popular in the first half of the XIX century and became practically desk book for students of Cambridge, including young Charles Darwin. William Paley defended the idea of a divine intelligent design in nature, and his Watchmaker analogy gained wide popularity. According to the Watchmaker analogy, the mechanism of the Universe, like the clock mechanism, has its own Creator, who arranged the world according to his intelligent contrivance and design. Paley's natural theology has had a significant impact on the formation of evolutionary concepts in geology (C. Lyell) and biology (C. Darwin). The main principles of Paley's natural theology, such as uniformity of animate and inanimate nature, perfect adaptation of living organisms, the utility principle and the pleasure principle, as well as the view of Paley's natural theology on the problem of death are considered in the article. Attention is paid to Paley's criticism of the evolutionary views of Buffon and other evolutionists of the XVIII century, Paley's views on the organization of living organisms and on the nature in general, as well as the attitude of creationist representations of the natural theology of the XVII-XVIII centuries to the modern neo-creationism.