Five times before the first humans existed, "God saw that it [Creation] was good." (Gen. 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25) Humans refuse to acknowledge this. We think that all the earth was created specifically for us. Indeed, Creationist Jobe Martin, in his series of audio recordings claiming to refute evolution, actually declares that God created the earth "for our pleasure." Scripture does not say this. True, it does say, "let them [humans] rule over... all the earth" (Gen. 1:26), but this need not imply that the earth was created specifically for us. A hired gardener manages the garden, but he knows the garden was not created for his benefit; rather, he was hired for the garden's benefit. If he abuses the garden, the owner has every right to dismiss him. Do not the scriptures say, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it" (Pdsalm 24:1; Psalm 50:12), and, "He [God] owns the cattle on a thousand hills" (Psalm 50:10, figuratively meaning all hills)? Martin's claim is contrary to these scriptures; it is just as man-centered as any of the world's philosophies. Far better is to say that God created the earth "for His pleasure and purposes."
In the fourth century, a Christian named Arnobius of Sicca lived in what is now Algeria. Arnobius had the right view of nature. He wrote:
The Wolf lies in wait at the sheepfolds; is nature at all to blame because it has created a beast most dangerous to the wool-bearer? By its bite the serpent takes away life: would you really condemn the foundation of things because it added to living creatures, monsters so fierce?How long it has taken us to come around to that enlightened view! Indeed, most of us still judge a species selfishly -- i.e., by whether it benefits or harms us. How few of us are willing to see nature as Arnobius did: in terms of God's plan, rather than our own human agenda. If God placed wolves in a particular region, then who are we to eradicate them? (Nature abhors a vacuum; in many places where wolves have been eliminated, wild dogs have taken their place and do just as much "damage.") When will we learn to accept nature's laws, instead of continually resisting them? Nature will not repeal any of its laws for our sake, no matter what justification (usually erroneous) we offer. Indeed, later in the same passage, Arnobius also wrote:
And seeing that it is not in your power to say, and you cannot explain for what cause you live beneath this vault of heaven, stop thinking anything belongs to you, since those things which take place, take place not for the benefit of one individual but arise for the good of the whole.I believe that nature caused Arnobius less distress than it causes many people, because he understood its true purpose. I also suspect that Arnobius is obscure, nearly forgotten by the Christian faith, because he had a better understanding of the things of God than hierarchy was willing to countenance. He lived at the same time as another Algerian Christian, Augustine of Hippo, who wrote at length of "punishment so richly deserved" -- much more appealing to the powerful. So fierce Augustine was elevated as a Doctor of the Church, gentle Arnobius relegated to the margins -- as always happens to those who truly love.
In the long run, natural law is the only real law. At the height of its powers, the Medo-Persian Empire held that once a law was made, it could not be changed. Who currently obeys, or even remembers, the laws of the Medes and Persians? So it will be with every man-made law. So when certain human governments, under pressure from industrial interests, avoid doing anything about greenhouse gas emissions, the climate will nevertheless continue to change, not acknowledging this or that policy. The climate will not step into line with your economic policies and preferences -- or your self-serving theologies. Nature will not obey your paper laws.
