Interesting points! On my end of it, I consider divine omnipotence a major theological mistake and also unbiblical. I view God as Cosmic Artist luring, not forcing, us on to higher and higher levels of beauty. I don't know if "failure" is the right word here. Maybe "disappointment" is better. I do know that God can be disappointed because we may not always actualize the creative opportunities for beauty he or she has offered us. Maybe even God can be disappointed by his own creative planning. I don't think God can know what definitely will go down until it happens. God may well push for something that ,open examination, upon full actualization, he or she finds most unsatisfying. Knowledge of plans is one thing; knowledge of the plan fleshed out is something altogether different.
I hold that creation ex nihilo is absolute nonsense. No true creator creates out of nothing. All truly creative work is conditioned by the past, by what is available at the time. God creates the adult out of the child, not out of nothing. God created Adam out of dust, not out of nothing. God created the world out of some pre-existent chaos, not out of nothing.
Bearing all this in mind, I turn to a standard attack on evolution, which I se some touching on here. It foes like this: Granted there are loads of similarities among creatures ,granted, for example, the limbic system of the human brain, aka the old brain the lizard brain, the reptile brain. is found throughout the animal kingdom all the way down to reptiles, there still is no evolution. Why? All these obvious similarities are simply due the fact that God likes these designs and so uses them over and over. God doesn't have to, he just is in the mood to. One and the same creator, one and the same preference for one and the same designs. So, human brains resemble those of rats rats, but they are all a separate creation. The human brain did not evolve physical from anything lower. did not evolve physically from lower forms. Same designer, same design.
I reject this view. Why? No designer designs twice. In other words, God, always, in the grip of his own eternal creative advance into novelty, continually comes up with new ideas, rather sticking to the same old plan over and over. So, what's with all the similarities among creatures? How come they do resemble one another?
Occupational necessity in several major ways. As I said, all creators creates out of something preexisted, not out of nothing. That means many features of the preexistent material or entity will automatically physically carry over over into the final product. God always works with the grain. God has no other choice, period, end of it.
But doesn't this mean God is some sort of weakling, feeling deeply frustrated by the way the tyranny of the past blocks his creativity? Absolutely no. That weakling argument is illogical. See, God, as Cosmic Artist, enjoys and welcomes the past physically ingressing into his works. All true beauty demands both uniformity and diversity. All true beauty, no matter how much novelty it includes, demands the incorporation of past elements, so as to attain the necessary uniformity.
I hold that creation ex nihilo is absolute nonsense. No true creator creates out of nothing. All truly creative work is conditioned by the past, by what is available at the time. God creates the adult out of the child, not out of nothing. God created Adam out of dust, not out of nothing. God created the world out of some pre-existent chaos, not out of nothing.
Bearing all this in mind, I turn to a standard attack on evolution, which I se some touching on here. It foes like this: Granted there are loads of similarities among creatures ,granted, for example, the limbic system of the human brain, aka the old brain the lizard brain, the reptile brain. is found throughout the animal kingdom all the way down to reptiles, there still is no evolution. Why? All these obvious similarities are simply due the fact that God likes these designs and so uses them over and over. God doesn't have to, he just is in the mood to. One and the same creator, one and the same preference for one and the same designs. So, human brains resemble those of rats rats, but they are all a separate creation. The human brain did not evolve physical from anything lower. did not evolve physically from lower forms. Same designer, same design.
I reject this view. Why? No designer designs twice. In other words, God, always, in the grip of his own eternal creative advance into novelty, continually comes up with new ideas, rather sticking to the same old plan over and over. So, what's with all the similarities among creatures? How come they do resemble one another?
Occupational necessity in several major ways. As I said, all creators creates out of something preexisted, not out of nothing. That means many features of the preexistent material or entity will automatically physically carry over over into the final product. God always works with the grain. God has no other choice, period, end of it.
But doesn't this mean God is some sort of weakling, feeling deeply frustrated by the way the tyranny of the past blocks his creativity? Absolutely no. That weakling argument is illogical. See, God, as Cosmic Artist, enjoys and welcomes the past physically ingressing into his works. All true beauty demands both uniformity and diversity. All true beauty, no matter how much novelty it includes, demands the incorporation of past elements, so as to attain the necessary uniformity.
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