Is Nature the ultimate authority as many scientists and naturalists, such as Neil
DeGrasse Tyson and David Attenborough, contend, or are man’s deities the supreme and
final authority when it comes to the natural world?
I have always believed that in Nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments –
there are consequences. In other words, that men and women suffer and enjoy
according to conditions.
As one naturalist once put it, “… the sun shines without love and lightning strikes without hate, hitting both the pious and pervert alike.”
That is to say, it is just as apt to strike the good man as the bad man; just as I believe a ship loaded with pirates is just as likely to ride out the storm as one crowded with missionaries.
“We know if we know anything,” as another naturalist opined, “Nature neither weeps nor
rejoices. She produces man without purpose and obliterates him without regret. Poison
and nutrition, pain and joy, life and death, smiles and tears are alike to her. She makes
no distinction between the beneficial and the hurtful.”
We know from just watching the Weather Channel that both church and brothel fall
alike before the deluge; know that earthquakes are just as liable to swallow virtue as to
swallow vice; know that counting beads has not stopped the tornado; know that the
rushing lava pauses not for bended knee; we know it.
From my perspective, at least, the Earth will continue to revolve on its axis, the sun will
rise and set, the rain will fall, the seasons will change according to their accustomed
time, and Nature will pursue her course without the slightest reference to the wishes of
mankind or his gods.
Borden Applegate
Jackson