The Rev William Paley taught at Cambridge from 1768 to 1776, and became Archdeacon of Carlisle in 1782. This extract from his Natural Theology gives the framework within which much of the succeeding debate will be conducted; and it also introduces some of the complexities in the relation between science and religion in the nineteenth century. Paley is attempting to prove the existence of God from the evidence of Nature, and in particular he is using the argument from Design: that is, that the evidence of design, in the sense of purposeful contrivance, in Nature, leads us to infer a Divine Designer as its Creator. His argument is not original (both his ‘watch’ analogy, and the example of the eye, had been used before), but it lucidly sums up a theological approach that had been enormously influential in the eighteenth century. Paley's work became a classic, and continued its influence throughout the nineteenth century, becoming a set book for examination at Cambridge. We will find Hugh Miller referring to and extending Paley's ‘watch’ analogy in 1855, and Frederick Temple still not abandoning the design argument in 1885.

It is significant that the growth of natural theology coincides with the rise of modern science in the late seventeenth century. Like that science, natural theology was supposed to be based on an empirical approach to natural evidences, and a mechanical model of the universe.