[metmom]

To me a God who created the mechanism whereby all things would come about under his guidance is a lot more powerful and foresighted than one who has to go “poof”.

So, essentially, God isn't a great God unless He did everything the way you think He should have.

So, please explain WHY God is more powerful and foresighted if He did it your way, instead of *poof*? We're looking at an entity who can create something out of nothing. If you grant that He created the whole universe then why is His greatness dependent on HOW He created it. Did it take more thought? More creativity? More anything?

Is an entity capable of creating everything more or less powerful because of HOW He created it than THAT He created it?

Since God is unbounded by time, it didn't take Him any longer from His perspective to create it step by step that to do it instantaneously.

[allmendream]

There are idiots out there who suggest that discovering the mechanics as to HOW things are created means that God is not their ultimate creator. It is they who wish to limit God to a magical mystical being who must either “poof” things into existence or is relegated to being a “clockmaker”.

I see no reason why the means used during creation change if God is “hands on” or “hands off” in any way.

Yet the assumption of many in the time of Newton that any description of planetary motion in reference to natural forces (gravity) meant that God was not responsible for moving the planets.

To those stupid enough to stake out the ground that God must magically move the planets, suggesting that gravity does the work diminishes God to them.

Similarly, to those that suggest that species can only be created or changed by magical means, suggesting that evolution through natural selection of genetic variation does the work diminishes God to them.

[betty boop]

So, essentially, God isn't a great God unless He did everything the way you think He should have.

Yep. I do believe that is at the root of allmendream's basic holding. And by the same token, that characterization would seem to be as true for YECers as it is for Darwinists.

JMHO FWIW. On the grounds that doctrine is no substitute for experience.

Thanks for your most enlightening essay/post dear metmom!