God as nature (summary)

If God indeed created nature, then nature could be described as God’s art. Nature reveals God for nature is God reflected. Nature is God’s love made visible. Nature provides the very proof of God.

Nature is God in things and is full of God. Nature could even be described as the body of God.

This is a primary tenet of pantheism though it does not believe in a personal God. Animists, on the other hand, believe that nature is full of spirits while others do believe in nature as a personal God or Goddess.
All of these ways of seeing God are very different from the belief that God sits separate from nature as a transcendent Being.

Nature is both a primal reality and a deeply spiritual entity.
Nature could be said to contain many of the qualities we associate with God, containing immense power.
Nature is synonymous with life (which we associate with divinity) and is synonymous with the laws of nature (which we also associate with divinity). Nature is also synonymous with spirit.
Nature is full of unfathomable mystery, mystery that science has not come close to explaining.
When in nature, there is a deep sense of divinity and sacredness. Nature is full of sacred silence.
Nature makes our souls come alive with the wonder and awe it invokes.
Nature awakens, restores and inspires the spirit and contains healing powers nothing short of divine.
Nature contains its own form of intelligence and has giving rise to our own, not to mention our very consciousness.
Nature contains great truth and wisdom. In fact, looking deeply into nature can create a deeper understanding than any scripture can impart.
Nature would seem to contain a degree of purpose and intent.
Nature is infinitely creative.

To be close to nature is to be close to God.
Nature reveals to us our divinity for we are part of nature.
To contemplate the beauty of nature is to contemplate the beauty of God and to listen to nature is to hear the voice of God.
The essence of God is that which is life-giving.
Nature is forever changing and therefore God is in a constant state of becoming.
Sex is part of nature and therefore divine. So is death.
If God is nature, then nature is God’s gift of Godself. Trust in nature and live in agreement with it. Revere nature and spend time there for this is true worship. Love nature for that is to love God. Make nature into your cathedral and treat walking in nature as a religious rite. Take time in nature to just be.
The more apart we live from nature, the more we lose touch with God and the more likely we are to exploit nature and destroy our world.
A wrong attitude to nature is a wrong attitude towards God.

In nature, all life is part of a greater, interconnected whole. This great web of life is God’s very heartbeat.
Nature displays the unity of God, a unity that manifests as an astonishing diversity and variety.
We are part of nature, part of the divine whole that is God. To be in nature is to feel this oneness with God.
Oneness is the law of nature and of God. What we do to others, we do to ourselves. Without a sense of this oneness with nature, we become alienated from nature, ourselves and God.

Nature can seem cruel at times and even ferocious. Nature can also appear pitilessly indifferent. Some agree that nature can seem hostile at times but argue this is no reason not to revere it and though nature can cause suffering, it has reason to.
Nature, unlike conventional ideas of God, is not inherently moral and does not make distinctions between good and evil. In reply, some argue that nature does display an interest in morality through the human forms it has evolved. Others argue the primary drive of nature itself is to enhance and support life which, in human terms, is distinctly moral and that most other life forms in nature behave in more moral ways than we do. There is no evil to be found in nature; evil is a distinctly human affair. It’s also true to say that seeing nature as God gives rise to the very essence of true morality: a reverence and respect for nature and life.