Have any prominent Christian Intelligent Design proponents discussed the issue of a potential infinite regress of intelligent designers?
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We can arrive at an [infinite regress](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/infinite-regress/) of designers as follows:
- Suppose that X is so complex that it's considered to show evidence of design. Accordingly, we infer that an intelligent designer must be behind X. Let ID1 be this intelligent designer.
- We can ask the following question about ID1: **Is ID1 at least as complex as X?** We have two possibilities:
- if Complexity(ID1) >= Complexity(X), we can infer that there must be an intelligent designer ID2 who designed ID1.
- if Complexity(ID1) 2 must exist. But then we can ask the same question about ID2, and infer the existence of ID3, and then the existence of ID4, and the existence of ID5, and ...
- And thus we arrive at an infinite regress of intelligent designers.
Would ID proponents agree with this reasoning, and if so, do they find an infinite regress of intelligent designers problematic?
If one believes that infinite regresses of this kind are impossible, a possible solution would be to stop the regress by claiming that there has to be **a first undesigned designer** (just like the *unmoved mover* or *uncaused cause* of the cosmological arguments for God's existence), but I think this would essentially reduce ID to Creationism. Is there a way to solve the infinite regress problem without resorting to Creationism?
**I'm interested to know if any prominent Christian ID proponents have expressed any thoughts about this potential infinite regress problem**, while keeping a separation of concerns between Intelligent Design and Creationism. I'm suggesting this last requirement in light of articles such as this one: [Intelligent Design and Creationism Just Aren’t the Same](https://www.discovery.org/a/1329/)
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For those interested in a broader range of answers to this very same question, you are welcome to have a look at a [cross-posted version](https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/99474/does-intelligent-design-id-entail-an-infinite-regress-of-designers-and-if-so) asked on Philosophy Stack Exchange. Judging by the reactions, I had much, much better luck over there.
Asked by user61679
May 24, 2023, 03:36 AM
Last activity: May 28, 2023, 11:37 PM
Last activity: May 28, 2023, 11:37 PM