Does God Need to Practice?
Recently a websurfer sent me a note inviting me to his site, asking me to pass it on to church members, etc. Upon visiting the site I found it was not a Christian site, but rather a classic example of theistic humanist thinking. That is, it relied not on God's Word but the opinions of the author, and where the Bible disagreed with those opinions, well, too bad for the Bible. (For more info on the evils of theistic humanism, see my life story in the "About Me" section off the main page.) (The author also had the disconcerting habit of putting words in other people's mouths; in this case, those of the Founding Fathers.)
This particular theistic humanist was a progressive creationist or theistic evolutionist (unless they are careful to define themselves, advocates of these two positions can be very difficult to tell apart). He believed that humans are derived from monkeys, according to a "creative" (?) process governed by God.
His argument? In his section defending this view he gave numerous examples
of human design processes which show development from less complex to more
complex items. For example;
DOS --> Windows
486 --> 586
And
so on.
Though unspoken, his analogy clearly was an attempt to relate evolutionary beliefs about the fossil record (as distinct from the true raw data) to intelligent design processes. In effect: "Look, we see steady development from less to more complex in the fossil record, and we see the same thing among human designs! What better proof that life is the result of an intelligent Creator? We don't need to believe in a six-day creation, for where is the analogy to that in known design processes?"
This analogy is a totally false analogy however, and heretical to boot. Question:
Why didn't we build 586/Pentium computers in 1945?
Answer: Because we did not have the knowledge, experience or tooling capability to build such machines in 1945.
Question:
What does an omniscient being not know how to do? What is an omnipotent being unable to create?
The answers here are self-evident, given the nature of omnipotence and omniscience; God, who has those attributes, knows everything and can do everything that is possible. He does not need to learn or practice! (See also my notes on omnipotence.)
Human beings developed the 486 before the 586 because we had to overcome our ignorance, because our knowledge is finite and must be obtained one piece at a time. From the analogies at the web site I visited, one received the definite impression that the god this person believes in is not omniscient. The god of the theistic evolutionist/progressive creationist makes mistakes and must learn as he goes, in the same manner as human technological progress. What sort of person wants to worship such an incompetent doofus? Give me four and a half billion years, and maybe I could do as good a job of biologic design!
No. God does not need time, nor practice, to achieve his desired goal. If creation was not instantaneous (as it could have been) there must be a reason for it. In fact there is. In Exodus 20:11 we are told that the six days of Creation and the seventh day of rest are a model for humans to follow; we call it a week. Those who illiterately claim the days of Genesis are long ages must have an awfully long work week!
I should note in passing that there is no empirical basis for believing that past life is in any way simpler or more primitive than modern life. That is an evolutionary article of faith, not something that can be determined by eyeballing fossils. Complexity exists at the bio-molecular level, and this is where historical data is lacking. Among modern creatures, small plants and animals, including single-celled ones, are every bit as complex at the molecular component level as are humans and other "higher" creatures.
In conclusion: the inference that God slowly developed humans and modern biology from earlier, more primitive animals, etc. because humans slowly advance technology from simple to more complex is based on a false premise. The false premise is that God is subject to the same trial-and-error process of technology development as ignorant humans are. This is not the case. If God did take time, there must have been purpose involved in the manner it was done; explanations for purpose among old-earth advocates are noticeably lacking.
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