Evolution and Smart Designing; A Study of Richard Dawkins and Anthony Flew's Views on the Design Argument

On the one hand, scientific advances have brought new challenges and many criticisms to the design argument, and on the other hand, it has become a turning point in presenting new readings and interpretations of the argument. Richard Dawkins came to the view that scientific findings have always opened the way for a naturalistic explanation of natural order. On the other hand, Anthony Flew also came to the belief that new scientific developments have strengthened the result of the design argument. Using a descriptive-analytical method and relying on the principle of "designed state of nature", The present article has evaluated Flew and Dawkins' arguments. The main problem of the research is that the best explanation for the orderliness of existence is "evolution" and "natural selection" or "intelligent designer"? The result of the research indicates that the explanation of the origin of order on the course of evolution faces many scientific and theological challenges, and Flew's collective reasoning will lead to a conclusion based on probabilities in a way that is rational and worthy of consideration, although a rational argument, though not being in logical deductive form. And also this research shows that it is possible to have an approach to theology from empirical sciences without using ambiguous philosophical principles and concepts.