THE NATURE GODDESS

Albert Popa

When we deny God, we create a vacuum, which must be filled. Atheism fills it with self-trust and the beliefs that they are the superior thinkers – “freethinkers.” Others create other gods, which can do nothing else but affirm them.

The very fact that you believe in in the god you call “Nature” represents a rebellion against the truth. How?

·       It is self-serving to believe in Nature. Since nature has no mind; it lacks any moral compass, and, more significantly, it cannot judge and condemn us. Instead, nature is cruel, heartless, and oblivious to us and our crying needs.

·       The “freedom” of Nature is the destruction of objective morality, a violation of our very moral nature, since we are just a part of nature, no better or worse than a bacterium.

·       Nature had a beginning in time. It therefore cannot create Nature or the immutable, elegant, and universal laws that govern and reign over nature. Therefore, nature also requires the transcendent Creator. Likewise, the goddess nature cannot account for life, consciousness, freewill, or even the existence of anything apart from itself, like the laws that govern planetary motion.

·       Nature also enslaves us. We are bound by our nature – biological, moral, and psychological – and must obey it like slaves without any hope of liberation. Nature gives us no freedom to disobey it. How much more liberating to obey our moral nature, when we are convinced that it represents God’s implanted truths.

·       Nature gives no hope. It ends in the death of everything that it touches.

·       Nature is also us. Therefore, the goddess “Nature” will elevate us no higher than we already are. Meanwhile, we are afflicted with thoughts that we are no more significant than an ant or a bacterial infection. Nature, therefore, is unable to give us what we need – love and dignity.

The belief in the goddess nature is a flight from reason and even from what our conscience has been telling us. The existence of God awakens our dread of judgment (Romans 1:32; 2:2, 14-16). Even the late atheist Christopher Hitchens had expressed his disdain for a God who is a cosmic watchdog and will reward and punish us. Why should he have been so disdainful of such a God, especially in view of the fact that it is well-known that such a conviction makes us behave more morally? Why, instead, could he not have simply dismissed such a reality? It seems that he and other atheists, as strenuously as they might deny God, are actually terrified of Him and will adopt alternative beliefs to shield themselves from the terrifying reality of judgment.

How much more reasonable to merely reconcile ourselves with God who has demonstrated His love for the world by dying the most horrible death for our sins and beckons all:

·       “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)