Therefore
God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts,
to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of
God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather
than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 01:24-25,
NKJV).
Rather
than acknowledging the truth of a Creator, rebellious humankind have
exchanged that truth for “the lie”, and in consequence have
inexplicably, and historically, worshiped the work of the Creator
(the creature) rather than the Deity whose power is the source and
origin of all Causality.
This
creature worship includes not only living things, but the planet
itself, investing it with attributes of life and consciousness that
flies in the face of all demonstrable fact and experience. This break
with reality would be labeled insanity in a sane world, but in ours
it is termed, “spiritual”.
Know
this, when God is purposefully divorced or exiled from our thinking,
vacuous irrationality ensues. I know from personal experience.
Gaia
(Mother Earth) Worship is an example of this, and is as prevalent
today in some circles as it was millennia ago. There are otherwise
intelligent men, women and children who have forsaken God, replacing
Him in their irreverence with an inanimate, non-living lump of rock
orbiting a nuclear furnace.
Certain
proponents of AGW (Anthropological Global Warming – the unproven
theory that human activity is changing the planet's climate) are
unapologetic Gaia Worshipers. Their sometimes unexpressed, but
implicit belief system is that Mother Earth would be infinitely
better off without human beings (presumably, except for themselves).
The
Bible teaches the diametric opposite: that earth was created
expressly for humanity and that we are to take dominion over it.
Before the Fall in Eden, that stewardship was expressed as Adam
“tending” (not exploiting or ravaging) the Garden. The intent was
for humans to use their God-given intelligence and abilities to
responsibly use planetary resources to maintain and imprint (put a
uniquely human stamp on) earthly life.
I
can only imagine what this would have entailed without sin having
corrupted the plan. Perhaps ancient mythical tales of magnificent and
almost magical kingdoms and realms comes closest to what it might
have been, but the reality is quite different.
Fallen
humanity has taken this directive of dominion and perverted it.
Instead of responsible stewardship, there is exploitation, instead of
“tending”, there is destroying. So the impulse of Creature
Worshipers, while utterly without foundation, is nonetheless
understandable. It is an expression of that divinely instilled desire
to have the earth be as God intended.
Ironically,
while this impulse comes from the Creator, its outworking in this
pagan religion is the denial of the very God who made the heavens and
earth and all the creatures in it.
There
is a profound spiritual principle involved in this outcome, and it's
this: the most brilliant human intellect becomes imbecilic without
God. And the corollary is this: the most noble human impulse, without
God, becomes idiotic.
Do
not make the mistake of thinking that this replacement of the Creator
with His creature is done through irremediable ignorance. It is
willful arrogance and pride. The heavens themselves declare the glory
of God, unmistakably. It takes work to look at the complexities of
existence and attribute them to time and chance, or to the Universe
itself, rather than to a Transcendent Intelligence and Power.
But
what alternatives do the pagans or naturalists have? If they let the
evidence of Creation speak for itself it can only lead to God, and
that is entirely unacceptable.
As
Harvard biology professor Richard Lewontin, speaking for the
scientific community, famously remarked, “It is not that the
methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a
material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary,
that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to
create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that
produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no
matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism
is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”
Note
that last remark: we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.
And
materialism, like Earth Worship, is just another instance of
substituting that which is created – in this case matter and energy
– for its unfathomable Source.
All
this would all be excusable except for two things: one, every human
being is endowed with an inherent certainty that there is Something
beyond him or herself. This is seen by the innate desire each of us
has to worship that something – either imaginary gods,
intellect, materiality, or ourselves in some mystical sense.
Secondly, God's self-revelation, both through the canvas of
existence, and the gift if His Word, leaves us without excuse.
As
Paul wrote in a previous verse... Professing to be wise,
they became fools.
Love,
Dad
