Actuyally it is worse than that. The regress really applies tas an objection to the first cause argument more than to the argument from design (AD). The AD is susceptible, however to the following objection, adapted from Hume.
The AD is an argument from analogy. Just as watches don't just happen because they are so complex the odds are impossibly small of their parts coming to be and interlocking in the right way by chance, so the universe or evolved life forms or whatever is so complex, then it must have been designed that way . . .
But if the explanation of complexity requires intentional design by analogy, intentional design normally occurs with a division of labor -- watches are the product of many hands, not one.
So, the universe or evolved life forms must have involved more hands than the Manhattan Project. Engineering shops. Mines. Mills. Shippers. Warehouses. Unions. Managers. Skilled and unskilled labor. (We're talking about the divine, so we will assume that this is a cooperative arrangement without bosses, wage-laborers, or celestial exploitation.)
Therefore the AD is an argument for polytheism. Do you believe in Heiphestos's workshop?
Gimme that old time religion: We will pray with Aphrodite Cause she wears that see-thru nightie And it's good enough for me! Gimme that old time religion Gimme that old time religion Gimme that old time religion And it's good enough for me
(A song I heard from Peter Seeger one time.)
--- John Adams <jadams01 at sprynet.com> wrote:
> All this is very interesting. Perhaps I'm showing my
> ignorance here,
> but what is the argument against the idea that, if
> the physical world
> is too complex to be explained without a creator,
> then the existence of
> a creator capable of producing such a world is at
> least as inexplicable
> as the creatorless existence of the world?
>
> All the best,
>
> John A
>
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