God --- Artist or Engineer?

by hamilcarr 10 Replies latest jw friends

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  hamilcarr

  I've been wondering whether God should be seen as an artist or an engineer. The Hebrew verb commonly translated as 'created' in Genesis 1:1 bears the meaning of 'to cut out', hinting at God being a sculptor. In its endeavour to imitate scientific language, the intelligent design movement, on the other hand, wants us to believe that God is an engineer who consciously designed the entire universe. Many artists assert, however, that 'self-consciousness is the greatest enemy of creation'.

  God as an artist, thus, seems to correspond to scriptural revelation, while God as an engineer is a rather modern invention of scientist-believers.
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  BurnTheShips

  Form follows function.

  And functional forms are beautiful.
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  doofdaddy

  I'd say god is a prankster.

  If you looked as an outsider at the biblical god and the issues s(he) suposedly put on humans, you would have to come to the conclusion, LOL what a funny guy (but kinda kinky).
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  Sad emo

  And yet even artists have to work within the bounds of engineering science.

  For example, a painter has to know how to blend their colours to get the desired effect, they are limited by the laws of colour physics.

  The sculptor has to know the scientific dynamic/properties of the material they are sculpting so that they can obtain the right tools for the job and not put unnecessary strain upon the finished model - so even God as a sculptor operates within those bounds - except that they are the bounds that he put in place!
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  Satanus

  Niether, imo. It's semiconsciousness reaching out towards consciousness. The universe is one such semiblind attempt. The way that it was early on, chaotic and formless, then becoming more organized, more developed as eons passed shows this self organization at work. We humans, the spirit part of us, is another part of 'god' which ascended through a different route than did the material universe.
  
  S
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  hamilcarr

  An engineer first learns mathematical and physical laws and then starts to construct. Form (realisation) subject to function.

  An artist does the opposite. Few artists have explicit knowledge of these rules.

  God as an engineer is cold and dispassionate, a nineteenth-century scientist.
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  ex-nj-jw

  God --- Artist or Engineer?

  Absent!
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  journey-on

  Both....definitely. An automobile could be just a gray metal box with all the mechanisms to operate it. But after

  the engineering concept is down pat, then the artist part kicks in and voila! You have shape, color, accessory placement,

  interior textures...all the artistic stuff. This is where the LUV of your creation takes over. You want to make it beautiful

  and enjoyable and grand! Yep! Now you need "another" to appreciate it and share the love....something that can smell

  it, taste it, touch it, see it, hear it. He did the engineering and the design. We are here to appreciate it and use it with

  love and care.
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  AGuest

  dear Hamilcarr... and the greatest of peace to you!

  He is a farmer - a cultivator, grower, planter, sower of seed. Truly. That is what is meant by the Hebrew verb 'created' as found at Genesis 1:1. The transliteration 'to cut out' can best be biblically explained (if you need that) at John 15:1, 2.

  Is there some artistry and/or engineering involving in farming? Certainly, and so you will "see" indications of that from time to time. But these never overshadow what His true... vocation... is: "growing" life.

  Again, I bid you peace.

  A slave of Christ,

  SA
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  maximumtool

  I dont know...

  Would any truly passionate engineer or artist just sit back and watch their creation destroy itself and live in comparative misery just because it didnt show the proper respect to him from practically the very beginning?

  One would think that if this respect and reverence were actual constraints that this artist/engineer had placed upon what he considered to be a successful design, then he should be punishing himself for failing and not just watching his project suffer because of his ego...