Grizz writes:
What is the nature of the posited designer? [...] perhaps life on Earth is the result of an alien Exobiologist picking Earth as a labororaroty for genetic experimentation.
Whatever the truth about this matter, unless we only want to know about the origin of life on earth and its consequent evolution, and not about the same on a cosmic level, an alien exobiologist is not a viable answer to the question. The alien is itself a biological life form, and a biologist to boot. That assumes - twice even, namely explicitly as well as implicitly - the existence of the very thing we want to explain.
In essence both would require faith so one would need to argue for or against A or B. If I were a totally neutral observer armed with all the facts what arguments would you present to convince me that conclusion A should be given priority over B or vice versa?
To espouse conclusion A is tantamount to throwing in the towel, foregoing completely the possibility of acquiring and using new information. Any position science takes on any matter is always tentative, so A is a conclusion that science would, by its very nature, never condone.
Within the context of your topic, that leaves conclusion B as the only alternative. Fortunately, it is worded in such a way as to provide enough latitude for both evolution on naturalistic principles and an intelligent designer. But in view of what I said earlier about the possibility of an alien experimentalist, the intelligent designer would have to be a supernatural being whose existence is independent of natural principles, such as biology.
The only remaining obstacle for such a being would be the problem of infinite regression with regard to the origin of its complexity, which, if ID is supposed to be an explanation for complexity, is itself in need of such an explanation. Whole threads about this subject have come and gone.
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." - Charles Darwin.
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