Maggie's Farm

Go Outside and Play

with your family (in It Takes a Church), but don't worship nature - that is idolatrous (Prager):

In every society on earth, people venerated nature and worshipped nature gods. There were gods of thunder and gods of rain. Mountains were worshipped, as were rivers, animals and every natural force known to man. In ancient Egypt, for example, gods included the Nile River, the frog, sun, wind, gazelle, bull, cow, serpent, moon and crocodile. Then came Genesis, which announced that a supernatural God, i.e., a god who existed outside of nature, created nature. Nothing about nature was divine.

Yes, Prager is persuasive as always, but why do I feel God on the top of Whistler? Or on a trout stream? Is that a pagan sentiment? Or awe of God's creation? Prager makes me wonder about that. Surely He who created the giraffe intended us to admire it before eating it, even if not invested with a divine spark. Or maybe the ancient pagan can never be fully removed from us.