It Is Foolish To Worship Nature

This has been a millennium old problem facing mankind. Who do we worship? How do we worship? Many cultures, traditions, peoples have followed idolatry, believing that certain manmade objects, that the created world around us is God, without understanding the true relationship between Creator and Creation. The Created world is beautiful, yes…but if we think that Nature is great…then we can only imagine how Great God (the Creator) is. Let us not forget about the greatness of God’s wisdom and love and appreciate this by the beauty of nature, of creation, all around us, without making the latter a deity. In the following Old Testament passage from the book Wisdom of Solomon (13:1-9) we see a prayer of God showing the foolishness in regards to worshipping nature (creation).

Solomon continues praying:

1You are the living God. And only those who are fools by birth could look at your creation and not learn about you. But instead, some people worshiped the things you created, 2such as fire and wind, and storms and stars, and rivers and planets. Those fools believed these things were the gods that ruled the world, 3because they were so beautiful.

But you are the Lord, as well as the source of all beauty, so let those fools know how much more beautiful you are than any of these things. 4And if anyone is amazed at the mighty power of nature, then they should realize that the Creator is even more powerful. 5Indeed, the power and beauty of nature should convince us that their Creator is even more powerful and beautiful.

6On the other hand, these people are not entirely to blame for taking the wrong path in their desire to know and to find you. 7It is to be expected that while searching, they would learn to trust the beautiful things they were seeing. 8However, this is no excuse, 9because if they possessed the ability to examine the universe, why did it take them so long to find you, the Lord of the universe?