William Paley (1743-1805) was a Church of England clergyman (among other preferments he was Rector of Bishopwearmouth in County Durham) who wrote textbooks on philosophy and Scripture that were highly regarded in their day. His Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785) and View of the Evidences of Christianity (1794) served as standard University textbooks. He held that God’s existence may be proved by the complexity of creation, likening this to a man who finds a watch and reasons that there must be a watchmaker to account for so regular and complex an object. He also campaigned vigorously against the slave-trade. However, King George III mistrusted Paley and the doors of higher preferment were closed to him, apparently because he let it be known that he agreed with those who wanted the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion in the Book of Common Prayer, to which all clergy were required to swear, made less proscriptive.
Clever people have realised that it is easier to get people on your side by mockery than by persuasion.
William Paley complained that critics of Christianity no longer troubled themselves with civilised debate. Instead, they scattered sniggering remarks throughout popular and academic literature, in the hope of laughing the public into atheism; for their knowledge of human nature had taught them that scorn is far more persuasive than argument.