We See Nature and We See God
atheistic reflections on religious meanings
Can you guess what is holding this fellow’s rapt attention?
For perhaps ten full minutes he didn’t move a muscle; his eyes seemingly fixed on the sun until the very moment the blazing curvature began to emerge from behind the trees. Having received his marching orders, he departed for the day’s activities, hopping quickly out of sight.
God was in that sun . . . was that sun. God was in that beast . . . was that beast . . . was that beast . . . was that beast. Looking at Nature, we saw God.
An old Quaker teaching tells us that there is ‘that of God’ in every man and woman. Some go one step further, saying there is ‘that of god’ in all of nature, in all creation, in the entire universe: animals, plants, stars and galaxies.
My Dad was a Deacon in a Southern Baptist Church in Oklahoma. When I first told him I was an atheist, he looked at me for a long moment and then smiled at me and said, “that’s alright, you just use different words for God than your Mom and I do”.
