Cal DeWitt, former professor of ecological studies at the University of Wisconsin and former director of the Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies, is a good friend.  Once when he was campaigning for wetlands conservation and restoration in his township, he came across a couple farmers who told him they didn’t see much value in preserving their wetlands.  Dr. DeWitt knew they were both avid pike fisherman.  As an ecologist, when he explained to them that pike fingerlings depended upon wetlands for their survival, he won their support.

The truth, however,  is that all natural systems are important in God’s scheme of things—the value of most of them not so quickly grasped.  That God would care for a sparrow, the humblest and least attractive of birds, ought to be a sign to us to we should not see anything in nature’s community as being valueless or unnecessary.  All things in nature are interrelated.  And the unspoiled wilderness provides us the best of laboratories in which to learn about these connections.  That fact may well have been what Henry David Thoreau had in mind when he said “in wildness is the salvation of the earth.”

Modern science often gives us the impression that we really understand the complexity of wild nature.  The truth, however, was stated well by another ecologist: Frank Egler: “[Wilderness ecosystems] are not only more complex than we think, they are more complex than we can think.”  It’s in part because of such complex interconnectedness that our planet’s wild areas make us humble—which is the right attitude to have in the presence of our Creator and His priceless handiwork.

See you outdoors!

Dean

It’s been a good spring for farmers here in West Michigan: slow warm up and plenty of rain.  The crops look wildly verdant as do the fields and woodlands.  And the wild animals look to be multiplying as per their Creator’s mandate.  It’s a sad fact that proves the point: roadkill is abundant.  Skunks, raccoons, squirrels, and woodchucks mostly.  Still a little early for the fawns; and since they cannot jump the highway fences yet, they usually don’t get out on the main roads until late summer. (What a strange twist of the created order that mankind should become the chief predator of animals we don’t even eat.)

This time of the year I’m reminded of the psalms that speak of nature’s bounty.  And it’s hard to find a more exuberant expression of praise for God’s abundance than the one penned by the Hebrew psalmist David:

Beth Shemesh Israel 2006

You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its ridges abundantly, you settle its furrows; you make it soft with showers, you bless its growth. You crown the year with your goodness, and your paths drip with abundance. They drop on the pastures of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered with grain; they shout for joy, they also sing (Psalm 65:9-13 NKJV).

The fruitfulness of the earth and all its creatures is a major theme both of the biblical creation story and the re-population of the earth after the Flood. In both instances the Creator’s mandate is that the non-human creatures should “be fruitful and multiply,” and then that people should “be fruitful and multiply.” They and us have the capacity to multiply because the earth produces enough food for us all to live and thrive. But there’s a major difference between these two major forms of “living creatures”: people have dominion over the animals. This means that animals are ultimately at our mercy—in spite of the fact that for the most part, their Creator takes care of all their needs. Which is good: if we had to feed the animals, for instance, that would be our full-time job!  So we are blessed in that the animals are taken care of by God.

The Psalms in particular speak of the wilderness as God’s great larder where “the young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God” and where God gives the great sea creatures “their food in due season” (Psa. 104). Psalm 145 affirms the same: “The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.” And God does that because He “is gracious and full of compassion,” and His “tender mercies are over all His works” (vv 8-16 NIV).

The amazing fruitfulness of the earth that provides both for us and for the creatures of the wilderness is a gift from a righteous, gracious, merciful, and loving Creator. As its stewards then, mankind has a divine mandate to preserve its capacity to be fruitful—which involves our being able to determine when human activity begins to go beyond our taking of the fruit of the land and we start destroying its fruitfulness.  A part of that work is making certain that we preserve abundant habitat where wild animals can thrive in order that they may do the work their Creator has called them to, just as we do ours.

See you outdoors!

Dean

Academia asserts that the natural world is the result of uncomplicated basic elements acted on by simple forces in an entirely random and undirected manner. But common sense alone teaches us that the material world is irreducibly complex and its features are obviously the result of a purposeful plan.  Every year millions of words are written and hundreds of thousands of research studies are conducted that do little more than raise even more questions about how things work and how they are made to work.

[Click on the photos to enlarge]

In spite of the arguments of those who deny the existence of a Creator, the creation defies simple explanation.  From massive cosmic forces to subatomic particles, the natural world is unrelenting in yielding up only more complexity and more evidence of purpose.  George MacDonald used the purposefulness of the creation to touch the heart of the key character in his novel The Musician’s Quest. Agnostic Robert Falconer had gone to the wilderness for solitude and rest, but found himself pondering whether the natural world might have its source in a supernatural Creator.

Now working in Falconer’s mind was the dull and faint movement of the greatest need that the human heart possesses-the need of God.  There must be a truth in the scent of that pinewood; someone must mean it.  There must be a glory in those heavens that depends not upon our imagination; some power greater than they must dwell in them.  Some spirit must move in that wind that haunts us with a kind of human sorrow; some soul must look up to us from the eye of that starry flower.  Little did Robert think that such was his need-that his soul was searching after the One whose form was constantly presented to him, but as constantly obscured by words without knowledge spoken in the religious assemblies of the land. [And scientific assemblies as well -DO]

The truth of this was eloquently spoken by a child walking with his dad in the woods—the son of one of my friends: “It’s easy to believe in God when you’re outdoors, isn’t it, Dad?”

The other day I was taking pictures of wildflowers in “my” old orchard and sensed, like MacDonald, that if nothing else convinces folks of the existence of the Creator, the beauty and design of flowers certainly ought to.  When I got home and looked at the close-up of a daisy, I was awed again at its design.  It brought to my mind the “beautiful” mathematics of the Fibonacci number sequence that is found throughout nature.  Now as one who is “numbers challenged,” I can assure you I don’t understand the equations that “prove” the validity of the sequence.  But I know the beauty of it.  It is found in pinecones, flowers, the chambered nautilus, leaves on plants, and limbs on trees—among many other creatures.  Follow the links below to learn more about the natural patterns that show the Fibonacci sequence.

Fibonacci Numbers

Google Images of the Fibonacci sequence in nature

See you outdoors!

Dean

“The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great– and for destroying those who destroy the earth and for rewarding your servants the prophets”(Revelation 11:18).

Because there is so much controversy about global climate change in conservative evangelical circles, it seems like a risky issue to address here.  But I’ll be the Guinea pig by telling you how I think about it.  You be the judge about whether or not it’s a reasonable and biblically sound way to think.

To begin, let me say that I don’t consider any of the following to in any way be authorities on global warming: politicians (past or present), economists, preachers, news reporters, talk show hosts, Hollywood celebrities, parachurch ministry leaders, seminary professors, free-market libertarians, or scientists and publicists being paid by companies that stand to gain by either affirmation or denial of global warming.  Not listening to them eliminates from my consideration most of those who are talking about it as though they were authorities.

Since it’s primarily a question of science, I choose to listen to earth scientists—and atmospheric and climate scientists in particular.  But because there are behavioral issues suggested by whatever the science is telling us, when it comes to ethics in relationship to the global warming and its consequent climate change, I find it as close to ideal as possible to find and listen to the views of atmospheric scientists who share my view of Christian ethics.  There are two individuals that I’ve chosen to listen to because they’re recognized and highly respected atmospheric scientists whose conclusions are carefully vetted by other such authorities, and they’re followers of Christ: Sir John Houghton former chief atmospheric scientist in the UK and Dr. Thomas Ackerman in the US.  (Follow the links to their scientific conclusions and Christian views by clicking on their names. Also see John Houghton’s Wikipedia information here.)

[A new resource has become available since this article was first posted: A Climate For Change, a new book by climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe and her pastor husband, Andrew Farley.  Katharine is both a follower of Christ and a member of the Academy of Sciences who contributed to the Nobel Prize winning report from the International Panel on Climate Change.  Her scientific assessments appear sound and her writing style is smooth and easily grasped.]

From these individuals I get information that makes me conclude that global warming is happening, that worldwide human behavior is a major contributor to global warming, and that the general effects of global warming on God’s creation are and will continue to be far more negative than positive.   So for me, that’s it.

Well, not quite.  There’s a significant follow-up question: if global warming is happening and humans are a major cause, how must Christians then live?  That’s not as easy a question to answer.  What helps me with the answer, though, is the old story of the boy who was standing next to some authorities who were trying to figure out how to get a semi-trailer unstuck from an overpass that was two inches too low for it.  They were considering cutting off the top of the truck, cutting out a section of girders, or even digging out the concrete below the overpass.  Standing no more than wheel height, the boy tugged on the sleeve of an official and asked: “Why don’t you take  some air out of the tires?”  The “authorities” were thinking of top-down and complex resolutions.  The boy was looking at it bottom-up, where the solution was obvious.

My viewpoint on global warming and all other threats to the creation is similar.  All sorts of internationally complex and controversial top-down “solutions” to the problem are being suggested.  Further, vested interests with virtually unlimited amounts of cash are throwing all sorts of wrenches in the works.  Debate rages and confusion reigns.  So my bottom-up question is this: “Why don’t we each individually curb our unnecessary burning of fossil fuels (which we know pollutes the air), stop spewing other stuff into the air that we shouldn’t breathe, stop spreading on our soil stuff we shouldn’t eat, stop pouring into our water stuff we shouldn’t drink,  cut back on our material consumption, live more simply, make some personal sacrifices in the use of transportation and energy, buy locally, and “reduce, recycle, and reuse”?  If we did what we could down here by the “wheels,” there would be fewer upper-level problems to deal with.  Ultimately the Copenhagen conference is about examining the standards of living of the industrialized world and about how the rich nations can help the poor ones.

The truth is that collectively our human habits are doing a lot of damage to God’s good creation. Whether these are directly, indirectly, or even related at all to global warming, lots of bad things are happening: the dying of the trees; the collapse of global fisheries; the disappearance of amphibians; the increase in human cancer, asthma, and allergies; vastly premature puberty in girls; loss of access to fresh water; alteration of ocean chemistry; heavy metal poisoning of marine mammals; and massive loss of biodiversity by human-caused extinctions of species made, cared for, and cherished by their Creator.

In my opinion, far too much human energy is spent on the big and complex debates, and not nearly enough on our just doing what we know is right and good for the creation.  Who and what is “destroying the earth” referenced by the apostle John?  We likely consider ourselves to be the saints who “reverence [God's] name.”  But if we are also culpable in the destruction of the earth, what then?  I don’t know about you, but that sobers me.

In my college days some of my favorite records (you remember: those big, black plastic discs with grooves traced by needles to make sound) were the gunfighter ballads of Western singer Marty Robbins.  One of the songs was “Cottonwood Tree”—about a gunslinger who had to shoot a young poker player who accused him of cheating and then lost—fatally—in the ensuing fast-draw duel.  Too bad for the shooter, though:  He shot the son of the town’s “biggest man” and in spite of pleas of self defense ended up swinging from a branch of  a cottonwood tree that had grown nearby “waiting to take [him] away.”

Folks in the western plains typically appreciate the cottonwood tree as the largest shade tree they can find a hot summer’s day (for some the only tree they can find!).  I’ve seen them along rivers like the Platte and even along stream beds that are dry by mid-summer.  Here in Michigan the eastern version is known mostly for its “cotton snow” which fills the air in early June with reminders of the winter just past.  This comes from the catkins that unfurl earlier in the spring for pollination and then mature to  put forth an abundance of fuzz-shrouded seeds that the wind loves to cavort with.  Drifts of it pile up at curbsides and often scurry across streets and parking lots like ribbons of snow flurries in January.

Last week I was walking home from work and found myself in a cotton snow event that was made even more dramatic by convection currents playing across a parking lot.  I had taken my camera out to shoot some still photos of the leaves and fuzzy catkins, and discovered a whirlwind.  My camera having a video feature, I quickly switched modes in the hope of getting a clip of it.  And I was rewarded in having the little fuzz devil swirl toward me and then loop away to dissipate some thirty feet from where I was standing—my nature treat for the day.  So that clip became my first YouTube video, which you can view here—wind sound included!

Cottonwood fuzz devil

See you outdoors!

Dean