What is natural? I know this may seem to be a fairly simple question, yet I see a potential issue with our contemporary understanding of the word. I find that there is sufficient cause to believe that what we call natural is not natural at all.
Imagine, if you would please, that you were the proud owner of a vivarium. In this created world you placed a couple frogs and fish. Everything was made to your specification. Then one day the frog looked towards you and postulated that the world in which it lived was natural, and that you in fact were supernatural.
At this point I do suppose that if this indeed happened you would be wondering if you inadvertently (or not so inadvertently, I do not judge) licked the fore mentioned frog. However, for this argument let us suppose that this was a regular occurrence and you have no cause for concern.
If this statement was in fact made to you by the frog I would think that you would find it quite a ridiculous comment for a creature to make. After all, you created the entire world in which it lives and for the sake of argument I will even say that you had the power to create the creature. In this example I find it difficult to believe that the created creature could ever postulate that the creator was not of natural existence, yet this is exactly how we view God; we view Him as if He is more than natural.
In Christianity it is put forth that in the beginning God created all things and we now live in that creation as a created. If this is truly the case then how can we ever possibly call out to God that He is supernatural? Does it not make more sense to understand that the state God exists in is the natural state of the universe and that what we live in is some altered, almost artificial in essence, state.
Now I know some etymologist may at this point be conjuring up the definition of "natural" and point out that the definition of "natural" does not reference initial state (or original form). It simply means something that was developed by nature and to what nature is would be another question entirely. To this point I would agree, however, it is the connotation that causes issue.
I contend that the use of natural in today’s societies brings with it a connotation of unchanged or original form. This connotation has essentially altered the understanding of the word and therefore transformed our idea of what is an initial state and what is an altered state. I suppose to the evolutionist this makes no difference, but to the creationist this will be the crux of their understanding.
In conclusion, I do not wish to prolong this scrawling and will summarize. The intention was to simply display that we do not live in a world that is natural in relation to the existence of God. It is God in all His glory that is natural. When God created us He created an unnatural world for us to live in, but gave us a piece of His natural spirit so that we may always know Him. In this sense our natural spirit is at odds with our unnatural flesh. Therefore, we must daily take up our cross and crucify our unnatural fleshy encasement.
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