Stu wrote:
...simply begs the question if the universe needs a designer, what designed the designer?
The origin of life on earth and the origin of the universe are two separate issues. I don't have to explain the origin of sculptors in order to infer Mt. Rushmore was sculpted. Neo-Darwinists are in the same boat with design theorists on this issue. When they posit the theory of evolution they face the question âHow did the first living thing arise?â, this question is brushed to one side with declarations of the difference between the origin of life and the theory of evolution. Just as one can focus on the theory of evolution without bothering about abiogenesis, one can focus on the design of the cell without worrying about who designed the universe.
Here are two explanations that avoid the "infinite regress problem" as it relates to the origin of life on earth:
1. Abiogenesis did occur on another planet, intelligence evolved, and this intelligence seeded this planet.
2. The ETI that seeded the earth with life owes its origin to some supernatural intervention at some point in its history.
But it's unclear to me why infinte regress is a problem. There's some respected theorists who posit multiple universes - even an infinite number. Therefore, the intelligence that designed life on earth may itself have been designed earlier by an intelligence that came from one of those "multiple universes." It in turn may have been designed by another intelligence, ad infinitum. If there are an infinite number of universes, why think intelligence or life must have an ultimate beginning?
Here is another way to look at it:
It is not unreasonable to suppose that within a mere 1000 years, humans will have the ability to design life forms and use them to seed distant planets, say planet X. According to the reasoning of the ID critic's, if we wanted to explain how life got on planet X, we could not appeal to human design, as that would not answer the question about where humans came from. Therefore, to avoid this conundrum, the ID critic's would have to postulate that life on planet X was spawned from the geochemistry of planet X even though it would not be true.
If one thinks that in the future humans will have the ability to design life forms and use them to seed distant planets then it would be reasonable for them to conclude that the intelligent design of life forms may have possibly occurred in the past, here or elsewhere. If we will be able to do it, then itâs at least logically possible that somebody or something else could have done it too.
Now, I'm not arguing for ETI as the designers nor am I ruling out God as the designer. I'm merely pointing out the possibilites that exist within the ID paradigm.
