The photo shows a relatively young alder (not elder) tree in the location and date explained in Atheism 1. Alder is a tree that flourishes in damp, even waterlogged, ground. It is deciduous so in winter its seedpods and catkins are more visible than later in the year. It is a native species (see explanation in Its the Trees), and for some years now the Environment Agency/Woodland Trust etc. much prefer the use of native species in any new tree planting scheme.
Given the expanse of the Universe it almost demands a faith rather than fact mindset to comprehend it. This vastness must contain an infinite number of planets with surely some ‘peopled’ by evolving life forms of some sort. What faith/belief structure will they have? So how can we prejudge that situation with atheistic opinions? However, what seems to me clear from the incredible discoveries of the 20th century, and continuing (and I am ‘dipping my toe’ in a discipline of which I know little) is that forces are at work which apply across the Universe, galaxies, solar systems and, indeed, on Earth which are universal – there is order rather than chaos (currently, apparently, Dark Matter, defies explanation so we await further developments). So then, there is a god, the God of Nature and all that it ordains. It’s a simple idea, but all the more convincing for that. It is free of the homo-sapiens centred dogmas that dominate the World, homo-sapiens being product of the Natural Order having evolved through relatively recent times. When we die we are ‘returned to earth’ by decomposition or as ashes, thus respecting Nature’s order.
But here Naturism (for lack of a better term) and Christianity (I’m not sure about the other World religions) come close in the circle of religious doctrines. Writing in 1769 the Rev. Gilbert White (see ‘The Natural History of Selborne’) quotes a poem entitled The Naturalist’s Summer Evening Walk in which is the line ‘The GOD of NATURE is your secret guide’. In other words the Laws of Nature are overseen/were created by a God, that in the context of Christianity is the Father of the Trinity. So there we have it. That said, our knowledge of Evolution does not seem to fit well with this mindset, and indeed why should God be created in human form?
(to be continued)