The Great Designer

In my last blog 'Functional Beauty', I uncovered the need to focus on our own inner functional beauty to enable us to design with functional beauty, because we are reflected in our designs. In this we are fortunate to have been made in the image of the Great Designer, and can therefor look to Him to understand ourselves as humans and as designers. Over the next few blogs, I will try to focus on what we can learn about ourselves and design by studying the Ultimate Designer; the creator of creativity & designer of design?

The Bible says that the world was created or designed (Calvin, Gen 1:1). Debates about the specifics of how this was done can sometimes overshadows this fact, but God is the original designer regardless of our thoughts on the origins of our world. There is much debate about evolution and intelligent design, but public opinion shifts, and the interpretation of scientific data is influenced by these shifts. The only fully constant source for information about creation is God Himself, so we will focus on what God reveals to us in Scripture. I will therefore try to avoid the debate about evolution and intelligent design since neither is equal to Scripture itself.

The message in this blog does however assume the truth of the creation account in Scripture in that it has a real existence in space and time, is historical, is rational and can be discussed and communicated (Psalm 136; Schaeffer 1982:7&8 vol 2). We don’t need to understand the creation exhaustively for it to be true (it is in fact independent of human knowledge), but if we accept it to be true and that we don’t know all the details, then what Scripture does say about it can guide us in our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, and guide our own creative acts.

God's Character as Revealed in Scripture & Creation:

The word translated as ‘created’ in Genesis 1 means that the world was created from nothing (Calvin). This is important because no human can match this. Being a designer (or even a genetic engineer) does not threaten God’s authority as ‘God: the ultimate designer’, because we all need something to form or modify when we create. God also uses His spirit to sustain His creation (Ps 104:29; Gen 1:2; Calvin). The best we can do is to try to anticipate deterioration & patch-up where we go wrong.

God is personal & reveals Himself to us so that we can know Him both intellectually & intimately. He does this through the Bible, Creation & the Holy Spirit (Rom 1:19; Matt 11:27; 1 Cor.1:21; John 1:18) He is knowable, even though He is not fully comprehensible (Grudem 1994:149-152).

He has told us that He has made us in His own image and that He wants us to rule over His creation on His behalf (we'll look into this ruling in more detail in later posts):

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. ²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:27-28

There are some parts of His character that we don't share; such as His complete independence, His consistency & lack of change, and that God is not limited within time or space (Grudem 1994:160-177).

There are however things that we do share to some degree because we are made in His image (Grudem 1994:185-222). These similarities between God and us, along with God’s personal choice to create us in this way, give humans an irreducible value which is sometimes referred to as human dignity. The Old Testament is clear on the precious nature of human life (Leviticus etc.) and Jesus expresses this value more deeply when he classifies murder as including personal insults and not just limited to taking someone’s life (Matthew 5:21&22). Therefore our design (and all life) should take human personality and human dignity into account, and not just reduce people to robots or animals.

Our role

The Bible is clear that we were created to rule over the earth (Gen 1:28). This is not a license to abuse or be reckless! We are called to be stewards but we must not forget that our likeness to God has always been limited and that our motives and desires are often sinful, which was not the case when God gave that instruction. We are answerable to God for all our actions, including how we treat the world around us, and for the ways we use the resources He has given us.

Our primary purpose as humans is to bring God glory and honor (Isaiah 43:7; Ephesians 1:11-12; Grudem 1994:440), and abusing people or the world around us only brings Him dishonor. When we take glory for ourselves, and don't acknowledge God, we rob God of the Glory that is rightfully His because He made all things (Mark 12:30; Acts 12:22-23; Romans 11:36; Revelation 4:11). Our designs should therefor seek to bring Him honor & joy, and make the best of our situation, rather than bring ourselves wealth & fame. We can only hope to do this in God's strength, which is why we're looking at the Bible for guidance.

These facts should inform our views on popular design theory. Human dignity and our ability to share, at least partially, in God's moral character (goodness, love, mercy, grace, patience, holiness, peace & order, righteousness & justice, concern for God's honor, and hatred of all evil) through grace and forgiveness that comes by faith, should inform our understanding of Universal Design, Design for Disability, Design for Development and the like; while our stewardship and responsibility for the earth as part of God's creation should do the same for our understanding of Green Design, Sustainable Development etc. Therefor the Bible can, and should, provide a unified structure and set of principles for incorporating all of the above theories, along with many other,s into what I prefer to call Responsible Design or Biblical Design. If our role as designers is meant to reflect God as creator & sustainer of all things, then its one that should be undertaken carefully, and with consideration for His priorities.

Images: Paintings by Ethel Hobson (my great grandmother)

Calvin, J. John Calvin's Bible Commentary http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/genesis/calvin/genesis47.htm

Grudem, Wayne. 1994. Systematic Theology, an Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. UK: Inter-Varsity Press.

Schaeffer, Francis A. 1982. The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Volume 2: A Christian View of the Bible as Truth. UK: Paternoster Press