God's involvement in nature

[Pats]

To what degree do you think God is involved in nature?

How about with the creation process?

Do you see God as a creator who started it all with a design? knowing how it would go?

Or, do you see him as intamately involved with each step of the creative process?

How about in our lives now?

 

[Willtor]

"Whether invited or uninvited, God is present."
-- Carl Jung (?)

I don't think there is a facet of creation, micro or macro, where God is not present and active in His sustenance. When exploring anything that is, I cannot but see God behind it, permitting it to function by His providence. I would differ from the Reformed tradition, slightly, however, and say that His providence permits the world to operate freely within the constraints He has placed on it.

When you ask about God as One Who started it all with design in mind, knowing how it would all go, I wouldn't separate out time as a distinct entity. Ontologically, I think God upholds all of creation, including time. Thus, time does not function apart from God's providence. There is no sense in which I can say that God created the cosmos at the beginning of time as opposed to God created it, right this instant.

 

[jereth]

To what degree do you think God is involved in nature?

How about with the creation process?

Do you see God as a creator who started it all with a design? knowing how it would go?

Or, do you see him as intamately involved with each step of the creative process?

How about in our lives now?

Great questions, Pats. I firmly believe that the biblical picture of God is of a sovereign deity who governs every aspect of the world, down to the most minute details. So I believe he is intimately involved in every process of nature, including every step of the creation process. I certainly see him as master designer, who not only "knew" how everything would go, but who actively determines how everything will go.

It is this realisation, in fact, which enables me to be a Christian Evolutionist. I do not accept the rhetoric of atheists and YECists (yes, they have a united voice!), who continually insist that "evolution = blind, undetermined chance". Evolution is, and can only ever be, a process that is sovereignly directed towards a predetermined goal.

Here's a fantastic quote about God's activity in the world:
"God has called the universe into being out of nothing, and hence at every moment it 'hangs' suspended, as it were, over the abyss of non-existence. If God were to withdraw his upholding Word, then all being, spiritual and material, would instantly tumble back into nothing and cease to exist. The continuation of the universe from one moment to the next is therefore as great a miracle and as fully the work of God as is its coming into being at the beginning." Bruce Milne, Know the Truth, IVP 1998

 

[relspace]

To what degree do you think God is involved in nature?

How about with the creation process?

Do you see God as a creator who started it all with a design? knowing how it would go?

Or, do you see him as intamately involved with each step of the creative process?

How about in our lives now?

I do not think God is involved in the nonliving aspects of nature to any great degree. He set up this aspect of the world to operate largely according to deterministic physical laws and He does not interfere with the operation of these laws.

God created this physical universe to make the process of life possible, and I think He is intimately involved in its overall development not as a designer or engineer but as a participant or caretaker, like a farmer or a teacher.

God participates in the creative process of life to encourage it to make the choices that help it to realize its greater potentialities. So God's work of creation continues in us if we make him a part of our life. It is our nature and the nature of all life that only with the participation of God in our lives can we continue to grow in power, sophistication, sensitivity and knowledge, receiving all the God has to give us eternally.

 

[Carey]

To what degree do you think God is involved in nature?

How about with the creation process?

Do you see God as a creator who started it all with a design? knowing how it would go?

Or, do you see him as intamately involved with each step of the creative process?

How about in our lives now?

I think God made the Big bang happen knowing how it would go.

I think he knows the end result for the Universe but how we play into it and the angels play into it can very for each individual human or angel.

Yes God todaywhen necessary do to him giving us free will .

 

[The Lady Kate]

To what degree do you think God is involved in nature?

To the same degree God's involved with everything... as much as He wants to be.

How about with the creation process?

Do you see God as a creator who started it all with a design? knowing how it would go?

Or, do you see him as intamately involved with each step of the creative process?

How about in our lives now?

As far as the Creation Process, I think he started it up with a design. He knew what he wanted to achieve and set the wheels in motion.

 

[chaoschristian]

The Lady Kate returns!

 

[The Lady Kate]

The Lady Kate returns!

It has been too long, hasn't it?

 

[shernren]

Yes, God runs the world.

Yes, the world is run according to quasi-deterministic (to the level of quantum uncertainty; but I don't support Ken Miller's method of hiding divine interference there) rules that are precisely so consistent that science exists.

Is there a conflict? Maybe. One can take the easy way out and modify either of the sentences. An atheist says that it only "appears" that God runs the world - to religious people. A religious person might say that the world only "appears" to be quasi-deterministic - the scientific stuffing is just a go-between, like shadow corporations hiding one big CEO's movement.

The difficult way out is to grapple with the idea that maybe both are true simultaneously. But really, I don't find it too different from the predestination-freewill issue, an extension into the natural world (which we ourselves are parts of as material beings). And long ago I decided that I would give up and just live with the implications of living a religion with mystery.