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Single Idea 2647

[filed under theme 28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / b. Teleological Proof ]

Full Idea

If one comes into a gymnasium and sees everything properly arranged and carried on in order, one does not imagine these arrangements to be accidental, but infers that there is someone in command whose orders are obeyed.

Gist of Idea

It is obvious from order that someone is in charge, as when we visit a gymnasium

Source

M. Tullius Cicero (On the Nature of the Gods ('De natura deorum') [c.44 BCE], II.15)

Book Ref

Cicero: 'The Nature of the Gods', ed/tr. McGregor,Horace [Penguin 1972], p.129

The 44 ideas from M. Tullius Cicero

2661 Dialectic is speech cast in the form of logical argument [Cicero]
20800 Every true presentation can have a false one of the same quality [Cicero]
2664 If we have complete healthy senses, what more could the gods give us? [Cicero]
2665 How can there be a memory of what is false? [Cicero]
2672 Virtues must be very detached, to avoid being motivated by pleasure [Cicero]
2673 There cannot be more than one truth [Cicero]
2669 Dialectic assumes that all statements are either true or false, but self-referential paradoxes are a big problem [Cicero]
6029 Whoever knows future causes knows everything that will be [Cicero]
6031 The essence of propriety is consistency [Cicero]
21405 Cicero sees wisdom in terms of knowledge, but earlier Stoics saw it as moral [Cicero, by Long]
20871 Unfortunately we choose a way of life before we are old enough to think clearly [Cicero]
21667 Oratory and philosophy are closely allied; orators borrow from philosophy, and ornament it [Cicero]
21677 How can the not-true fail to be false, or the not-false fail to be true? [Cicero]
21678 If desire is not in our power then neither are choices, so we should not be praised or punished [Cicero]
20814 Eloquence educates, exhorts, comforts, distracts and unites us, and raises us from savagery [Cicero]
2645 Why shouldn't the gods fear their own destruction? [Cicero]
2628 Why would mind mix with matter if it didn't need it? [Cicero]
2627 I wonder whether loss of reverence for the gods would mean the end of all virtue [Cicero]
2634 It seems clear to me that we have an innate idea of the divine [Cicero]
2635 The gods are happy, so virtuous, so rational, so must have human shape [Cicero]
2636 Many primitive people know nothing of the gods [Cicero]
2638 Either the gods are identical, or one is more beautiful than another [Cicero]
2640 We have the death penalty, but still have thousands of robbers [Cicero]
2641 Why believe in gods if you have never seen them? [Cicero]
2647 It is obvious from order that someone is in charge, as when we visit a gymnasium [Cicero]
2650 If a person cannot feel the power of God when looking at the stars, they are probably incapable of feeling [Cicero]
2651 God doesn't obey the laws of nature; they are subject to the law of God [Cicero]
2652 Some regard nature simply as an irrational force that imparts movement [Cicero]
2653 If the parts of the universe are subject to the law of nature, the whole universe must also be subject to it [Cicero]
2655 If the barbarians of Britain saw a complex machine, they would be baffled, but would know it was designed [Cicero]
2656 Chance is no more likely to create the world than spilling lots of letters is likely to create a famous poem [Cicero]
2657 If everything with regular movement and order is divine, then recurrent illnesses must be divine [Cicero]
2658 The gods blame men for having vices, but they could have given us enough reason to avoid them [Cicero]
2659 The lists of good men who have suffered and bad men who have prospered are endless [Cicero]
5879 The soul is the heart, or blood in the heart, or part of the brain, of something living in heart or brain, or breath [Cicero]
5884 How can one mind perceive so many dissimilar sensations? [Cicero]
5887 The soul has a single nature, so it cannot be divided, and hence it cannot perish [Cicero]
5885 Souls contain no properties of elements, and elements contain no properties of souls [Cicero]
5886 Like the eye, the soul has no power to see itself, but sees other things [Cicero]
5890 We should not share the distress of others, but simply try to relieve it [Cicero]
5891 Philosophy is the collection of rational arguments [Cicero]
5893 A wise man has integrity, firmness of will, nobility, consistency, sobriety, patience [Cicero]
5894 All men except philosophers fear poverty [Cicero]
5895 If one despises illiterate mechanics individually, they are not worth more collectively [Cicero]