Meet the Designer - Blog
Contra Scientism
Scientism claims that science provides the only or best way to render truth about the world or reality. Strong scientism makes the exclusive claim, weak scientism the authoritative one. This is a serious overreach, but regrettably, this view holds enormous sway within Western culture. In fact, it is a significant reason why many Christians come to doubt their faith...
The Trinity and the Filioque in History
The Doctrine of the Trinity has
developed over many centuries. Doctrinal clarity often occurs in the process of
defending the faith against false teaching. Solutions answer specific challenges,
but there is still room for greater clarity. The primary challenge is to
describe who God is in Himself (a se). There is One God, who exists eternally
in Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How are these Three
related to each other? We understand the processions of the immanent Trinity
because God discloses Himself in mission (economy) as recorded in Scripture. What
follows is a brief history of the doctrine of the Trinity and the associated
filioque controversy. This provides a handy reference for future discussions on
these topics.
Design and Science
If Intelligent Design is true, how does that change science?
Terraforming
The search for exoplanets (now at 5662 as of 1 May 2024)
prompts the question of habitability. Is there life on any of these exoplanets?
If distant worlds that could support life are uninhabited, can these planets be
transformed to support human life? However, the problem of terraforming other
worlds tens of light years from earth is a only a thought experiment given the
time it would take to reach these worlds and the round-trip latency associated with
subsequent communications.
Design and Freedom
We inhabit a world made for design. We see this in the birds
and their nests. We see this in the ants and their farms. We see this in the
bees and their hives. Designers work within boundaries but their work exploits
degrees of freedom. Design involves tradeoffs. Designs that are optimal for one
set of conditions perform more poorly in other conditions. Designs that balance
performance across two sets of conditions may not be as good as a design
optimized for only one condition. Designs that adapt to match conditions pay a
price in the machinery of adaptation. Engineers must decide which design is
best.
Euthyphro and stained glass
One of the most famous dilemmas in philosophy is Euthyphro’s
dilemma. The topic is the goodness of God. Plato presents a dialogue between
Socrates and Euthyphro. They explore the question of whether something is good
because God declares it to be good or because goodness meets some external
standard. The former suffers from the possibility that the gods (plural in the
case of the polytheistic Greeks) may act capriciously, yet call the results
good. Then, God is arbitrary. The alternative is that the definition of
goodness exists outside of God. But then who sets the standard? An external
standard would be greater than God. However, God is a maximal Being.
Woodworking
The lights dim slightly as the power saw surges to life. Even before entering the visitors recognize the familiar sounds of whirring machinery. At the saw, a man hovers over his latest project. The smell of fresh cut oak is in the air. There is a sense of anticipation as the visitors approach their friend. He stops the saw and holds up a nearby object. It is an elaborate construction with trusses and supports. “How do you like it?” They admire the piece. “It’s a drawbridge for the trainset,” the boy exclaims. This will provide new opportunities for creative design! The man beams with joy as he imagines the hours of delight this new piece would provide. Well worth the effort...
Designed for Design
Notwithstanding barefoot nighttime encounters with errant pieces, one must admit that Legos are pretty amazing. For nearly a century, these precision plastic bricks have provided endless entertainment for children and adults alike. Based in Denmark, the Lego company makes billions of bricks a year at a rate of 11,000 per second. Practical design rules for tiles and bricks and precision micron-scale tolerances enable tightly gripping, interlocking pieces that children can disassemble. More than a toy, Lego designs their products for design. They are designed for designers. ...
Nested Design
Birds design and build nests. They select the trees, the branches,
and the building materials. Some birds keep the same nest for multiple
years. Other birds prepare new nests each year. The nests provide a home
for eggs that soon become hungry baby birds. Interestingly, the mouths
in these nests will soon become designers of future nests themselves, as
will their offspring and their offspring’s offspring’s offspring. You
might say the design is nested.
...
