Wednesday, November 6, 2024







The following commentary was published by The Daily News-Record, the daily newspaper of Harrisonburg, Virginia, on November 4, 2024 (website link below). 

https://www.dnronline.com/opinion/open_forum/open-forum-connecting-with-nature-helps-us-find-god/article_1aae77af-4a81-5330-91f4-3abde60ea54a.html


ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © Marlene A. Condon

Connecting with Nature Helps Us Find God

 

Years ago, when then-delegate Steve Landes represented my district, he would send out an annual survey so residents could let him know which issues were most important to them. In the beginning, the survey included the environment, but that topic disappeared after several years.

 

I asked why and was told people didn’t express much interest in it; the environment was apparently unimportant to most folks as compared to other concerns, such as jobs creation, cutting wasteful government spending, etc.

 

Certainly, such issues are important, but what folks were not recognizing is that the environment should be at the very top of the list due to our dependence upon it. Without the proper functioning of our natural world, humans cannot survive, which is why both the biblical and evolutionary description of man’s appearance on Earth informs us he didn’t arrive until an environment that could support him was in place.

 

It's natural to take for granted something that’s always been there, as if it will always remain so. However, those folks who have visited space and returned to Earth or continued on to the Moon recognize the uniqueness of our planet.

 

According to NASA astronaut, Mike Massimino: “I thought at one point, if you could be up in heaven, this is how you would see the planet. And then I dwelled on that and said, no, it’s more beautiful than that. This is what heaven must look like. I think of our planet as a paradise. We are very lucky to be here.”

 

We certainly are lucky. The Earth, described by Apollo-era astronaut Edgar Mitchell as a “sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white…in a thick sea of black mystery [the void of space]” is, indeed, special. No other planet in our solar system (or perhaps even the universe) could support us of its own accord, which begs the question, “How did we get so lucky?” 

 

Perhaps this situation should give us pause: Could our favored status point to the existence of God?

 

Existing on the one planet in our Solar System that supports life can’t prove the existence of a greater being. However, over a decade ago, I experienced an epiphany that seems to prove the existence of a creator: Some aspects of man’s presence on the Earth are completely out of sync with the natural world, presenting an evolutionary paradox that can’t be explained by science.

 

Due to my scientific background, I was keenly interested in investigating this new awareness that God must exist. If correct, the Bible and the holy works of the major religions of the world—if truly the Word of God—would need to support my realization, and they did.

 

I found that the evidence for the reality of God is the natural world itself, but not because it’s majestic, complex, or unexplainable. Rather, once you grasp how logically and sensibly it functions and how humans are disjunct from it, the nature revelation becomes obvious.

           

NOTE: If you wish to learn more about the nature revelation that God exists, and how the Bible declares it and evolution confirms it, my treatise will be available at this blog site beginning November 7, 2024. I will be publishing one section per day. 





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PART ELEVEN Listing of Scientific Names of Organisms Mentioned in the Text ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © 2024 Marlene A. Condon Sachem butterfly at ...