Design arguments defended the present earth’s constitution as providentially fit for civilization

Evidence

In refuting the claims of the atheists that the world was created by chance configurations of atoms, Ray and his follower William Derham, pursuing the lead taken in More’s Antidote Against Atheism, worked out the argument from design and its teleological implications. The earth as it appeared at the present time, with its great abundance and variety of parts, “must needs be the result of counsel, wisdom, and design.” Against those who had argued that the “present earth is nothing else but a heap of rubbish and ruins,” he pointed out the advantages to civilization of its present constitution. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 915