The absurd need for logical proofs for God

[Angrboda]

Creation doesn't necessarily indicate design.  If it does, then your concept of design is also vacuous.  In that case "design" is not a property, and your entire argument collapses.  You're anthropomorphizing your god, which IIRC, is a no-no in Islam.

I think you misunderstand what my concept of design actually is; it is creation itself. I don't draw any distinction between clever combinations of matter/nature [e.g. machines] and matter/nature in its initial form. But you do, so you are the one who has problems with the concept of design here, not me.

So, then if God randomly created a universe, you're arguing that's an example of design? And you're saying your concept of design isn't vacuous?

It also occurs to me that God didn't create anything either, but simply converted his potency into matter.  Without the raw material of God's potency, there would be no matter.

Nonsense. Potency is a property of God, not some material external to God. An omnipotent God, by his potency -rather than (((converts))) potency-, creates matter ex nihilo.

Your only way out is to somehow prove that ex nihilo creation is logically impossible. Good luck.

I didn't say anything about externality. I'm simply pointing out that if human design is not really design because it requires something that exists prior to its designing act, then God isn't capable of design either because he must exist before he can create matter. If making use of something that already exists is design, then God qualifies; but then so does human design. Or are you arguing that God's potency isn't something that God has?

The long and short of it is that God didn't create the universe. The universe already existed. At the time, the universe only consisted of God. But if the universe hadn't already existed, God couldn't have created anything. His creation depends on something existing prior to his creation of the physical world, just as my creation depends on a pre-existence of rocks and matter. God's creation is no more privileged in an ontological sense than my creations.

"things that we call "designed" are combinations of this same matter, which clearly doesn't belong to us"

And God's creation is a combination of something that he didn't create as well. It's no different.