Is bottom-up design ungodly?

[Guido]

According to my understanding of Intelligent Design, God designed His creations in a top-down way, and gave us the ability to design things in the same way. In that God designed them top-down, they say, according to my understanding, He designed things hierarchically, according to the purposes that he had determined for them.

But another kind of design is sometimes used, in writing and in software engineering, and that is bottom-up design, where the designer first forms the lowest-level elements, and assembles them hierarchically, sometimes first having decided a purpose, and sometimes discovering a purpose.

Writers sometimes use free-writing, a method involving writing down whatever comes to your mind, without stopping. During this process, they can ask themselves questions and answer them, generating more content. After they have generated enough content through free-writing, they determine the structure and purpose of their composition, and begin drafting.

Seeing this is not considered the method that God gave us for designing things, and seeing it is associated with lack of careful thought, as in the case with free-writing, is bottom-up design ungodly? Is it only free-writing that is ungodly, bottom-up design being acceptable? Or are we at liberty to use both? What is your reasoning?

 

[Paleouss]

According to my understanding of Intelligent Design, God designed His creations in a top-down way, and gave us the ability to design things in the same way. In that God designed them top-down, they say, according to my understanding, He designed things hierarchically, according to the purposes that he had determined for them.

But another kind of design is sometimes used, in writing and in software engineering, and that is bottom-up design, where the designer first forms the lowest-level elements, and assembles them hierarchically, sometimes first having decided a purpose, and sometimes discovering a purpose.

Writers sometimes use free-writing, a method involving writing down whatever comes to your mind, without stopping. During this process, they can ask themselves questions and answer them, generating more content. After they have generated enough content through free-writing, they determine the structure and purpose of their composition, and begin drafting.

Seeing this is not considered the method that God gave us for designing things, and seeing it is associated with lack of careful thought, as in the case with free-writing, is bottom-up design ungodly? Is it only free-writing that is ungodly, bottom-up design being acceptable? Or are we at liberty to use both? What is your reasoning?

Greetings Guido. Grace and peace to you. I am currently on a little vacation, but thought I might respond to your post.

To be transparent, I'm not sure of your intent with the question. That is, what are you suggesting we design? Are you referring to one's theology? So the question is, can one design a bottom up theology and it be godly?

Since I'm not sure of the direction of the question...I will speak to my theology and its design. In general, my theology is a quest for God's truth (period). I try and stay away from "designing" anything (although I frequently fail at this task).

IMO...some human personalities look at things from the details stage first then move to a whole. Others, move from a whole to the details. A thorough theology, imo, does both. Regardless of which direction one starts with, the opposite direction should be in congruence with the first direction. If after doing both, they both don't match...obviously your proofing showed some error. So you work that out (through Scripture).

Everything is a following of God's truth through scripture and piecing those truths together into a whole.

Keep seeking God's truth as if it were hidden treasure (Prov 2)

 

[Van]

According to my understanding of Intelligent Design, God designed His creations in a top-down way, and gave us the ability to design things in the same way. In that God designed them top-down, they say, according to my understanding, He designed things hierarchically, according to the purposes that he had determined for them.

But another kind of design is sometimes used, in writing and in software engineering, and that is bottom-up design, where the designer first forms the lowest-level elements, and assembles them hierarchically, sometimes first having decided a purpose, and sometimes discovering a purpose.

Writers sometimes use free-writing, a method involving writing down whatever comes to your mind, without stopping. During this process, they can ask themselves questions and answer them, generating more content. After they have generated enough content through free-writing, they determine the structure and purpose of their composition, and begin drafting.

Seeing this is not considered the method that God gave us for designing things, and seeing it is associated with lack of careful thought, as in the case with free-writing, is bottom-up design ungodly? Is it only free-writing that is ungodly, bottom-up design being acceptable? Or are we at liberty to use both? What is your reasoning?

No, as anything blessed by God is just dandy.

Scripture clearly endorses the try and try again method of striving for maturity.

Underneath it all is the false dichotomy, its either one or the other, when both are in play.

Our biological "design" is specified in our first fertilized cell, embedded in our unique DNA. But that did not preclude our "designed" capacity to learn, to try, fail, and try something different. Otherwise our design would be "insane." (Trying the same thing and expecting a different result.)

 

[Guido]

Greetings Guido. Grace and peace to you. I am currently on a little vacation, but thought I might respond to your post.

To be transparent, I'm not sure of your intent with the question. That is, what are you suggesting we design? Are you referring to one's theology? So the question is, can one design a bottom up theology and it be godly?

Since I'm not sure of the direction of the question...I will speak to my theology and its design. In general, my theology is a quest for God's truth (period). I try and stay away from "designing" anything (although I frequently fail at this task).

IMO...some human personalities look at things from the details stage first then move to a whole. Others, move from a whole to the details. A thorough theology, imo, does both. Regardless of which direction one starts with, the opposite direction should be in congruence with the first direction. If after doing both, they both don't match...obviously your proofing showed some error. So you work that out (through Scripture).

Everything is a following of God's truth through scripture and piecing those truths together into a whole.

Keep seeking God's truth as if it were hidden treasure (Prov 2)

Thank you for your answer. I was originally concerned whether free-writing as a means to generate content for a composition is a sin, but since bottom-up design is used along with free-writing, I think, and since I was interested in what the Intelligent Design people are saying about God designing things, and the capacity He gave us to design things, J included discussion and questions about bottom-up design in my post. In reality, I simply was confused when I began to write, which I started doing by simple mind-mapping.

 

[Guido]

No, as anything blessed by God is just dandy.

Scripture clearly endorses the try and try again method of striving for maturity.

Underneath it all is the false dichotomy, its either one or the other, when both are in play.

Our biological "design" is specified in our first fertilized cell, embedded in our unique DNA. But that did not preclude our "designed" capacity to learn, to try, fail, and try something different. Otherwise our design would be "insane." (Trying the same thing and expecting a different result.)

So, are you saying that it is not sinful to use free-writing and bottom-up design?

 

[Van]

So, are you saying that it is not sinful to use free-writing and bottom-up design?

Yes, I wrote "drafts" of what I wanted to say. Then later I revisited the "draft" and edited it for spelling, grammar, and clarity. Sometimes I even changed the content after I had "thought through" the endeavor. I use the "edit" function all the time on this board.

And of course I often use "bottom up" designs, such as a hybrid car that gets 40 plus MPG, about three times better than my 57 Chevy back in the day.

 

[JonC]

According to my understanding of Intelligent Design, God designed His creations in a top-down way, and gave us the ability to design things in the same way. In that God designed them top-down, they say, according to my understanding, He designed things hierarchically, according to the purposes that he had determined for them.

But another kind of design is sometimes used, in writing and in software engineering, and that is bottom-up design, where the designer first forms the lowest-level elements, and assembles them hierarchically, sometimes first having decided a purpose, and sometimes discovering a purpose.

Writers sometimes use free-writing, a method involving writing down whatever comes to your mind, without stopping. During this process, they can ask themselves questions and answer them, generating more content. After they have generated enough content through free-writing, they determine the structure and purpose of their composition, and begin drafting.

Seeing this is not considered the method that God gave us for designing things, and seeing it is associated with lack of careful thought, as in the case with free-writing, is bottom-up design ungodly? Is it only free-writing that is ungodly, bottom-up design being acceptable? Or are we at liberty to use both? What is your reasoning?

You mean like building a house starting with the ceiling and finishing with the floor?