Dantheman said:
Hooberus,
I think you missed my point. Saying that God is some unobserved, unobserveable, non-mechanical something that had no beginning is an unverifiable, untestable, 'because I say so' assertion. It proves nothing.
And the point that you miss is that specific design theory statements such as: "An intelligent designer is necessary for the origin of biological life from non-life."; "An intelligent designer is necessary for the origin of complex biological systems (composed of componet parts) from non-complexity."; "An intelligent designer is necessary for the origin of complex electronic machines from non-complexity" etc., are not in themselves meant to discuss the characteristics of the designer at all- but instead are testable scientific formulations (often supported by accompanying scientific evidences).
Furthermore, there is nothing in such statements that requires the designer to also share the characteristics of the things in question (such as also being an "electronic machine" themself), hense there is no required infinite regression of "intelligent designers"designers in such arguments.
Now if the proponet of such statements as given above were to attempt to exclude for an irrevelant reason [like color] something that also is either observed to, or believed by them to also share in the above design arguments qualifying characters (such a having an origin and being a biological life)-then they would in fact be engaged in "special pleading". However, if they exclude nothing that is either observed, nor believed to have an origin and biological life [the statements qualifying characters] from the requirement, then they are not engading in any special pleading.
As to the issue of the origin, (or non-origin) of God [which some evolutionists frequently attempt to bring into discussions of the origin of the design of biological systems],- he is not either observed, nor believed by anyone (creationists, theistic evolutionists, and even atheistic evolutionists)*, to share in all the specific characteristics found in the specific design arguments (such as given above). Hense, its not special pleading for creationists (in response to evolutionists attempts to inject God into such biological design requirements) to point out that such specific design arguments are not applicable to God.
*atheistic evolutionists claim to have no belief in a real God at all (hense they don't believe in the existence of a real God being with any specific characteristics).