Planet Earth

Over the next few weeks, the Discovery Channel is going to be showing an "encore presentation" of Planet Earth, a documentary miniseries that BBC spent an exorbitant amount of time and money to shoot and produce.

I saw several of the episodes on DVD this summer, and I thought they were wonderful. The technology, technique, and obvious care that went into making them resulted in some absolutely breathtaking results, and I don't say that lightly. The series reveals things in nature that no one had ever seen before, and I found myself appreciating God's creativity and creation more and more as I watched. The episode lineup is:

1. "From Pole to Pole"
2. "Mountains"
3. "Fresh Water"
4. "Caves"
5. "Deserts"
6. "Ice Worlds"
7. "Great Plains"
8. "Jungles"
9. "Shallow Seas"
10. "Seasonal Forests"
11. "Ocean Deep"

Anyway, do yourself a favor, check out the schedule, and watch Planet Earth.

I Sing the Mighty Power of God

I came across a great hymn this morning as I was praying the Liturgy of the Hours called "I Sing the Mighty Power of God." The words were written in 1715 by Isaac Watts, the "Father of English Hymnody" who is credited with writing 750 hymns, including such well-known ones as "Joy to the World!" and "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."

The hymn celebrates the power and the goodness of God, which is revealed through His creation, as Paul affirms in his Letter to the Romans: "Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and his deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made" (1:20).

One of the tunes for the hymn is called Ellacombe, which you can hear here. These are the words, which first struck me:

I sing the mighty power of God,
That made the mountains rise;
That spread the flowing seas abroad,
And built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained
The sun to rule the day.
The moon shines full at his command,
And all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord,
That filled the earth with food.
He formed the creatures with his word,
And then pronounced them good.
Lord, how your wonders are displayed
Where e'er I turn my eye:
If I survey the ground I tread,
Or gaze upon the sky!

There's not a plant or flower below,
But makes your glories known;
And clouds arise, and tempests blow,
By order from your throne;
While all that borrows life from you
Is ever in your care,
And everywhere that man can be,
You, God, are present there.

Religion and science

The October issue of First Things contains an article entitled "God and Evolution" in which Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. presents an admirably balanced assessment of the relationship between religion and science. While the cardinal sees no conflict between Christian faith and evolution, he does critique what he sees as the overreaching of materialistic Darwinists who draw philosophical and theological conclusions from scientific data. A representative passage:

"Science can cast a brilliant light on the processes of nature and can vastly increase human power over the environment. Rightly used, it can notably improve the conditions of life here on earth. Future scientific discoveries about evolution will presumably enrich religion and theology, since God reveals himself through the book of nature as well as through redemptive history. Science, however, performs a disservice when it claims to be the only valid form of knowledge, displacing the aesthetic, the interpersonal, the philosophical, and the religious."

Beauty and majesty

So, my introduction to the state of Washington occurred a few weeks ago when I went on a five-day backpacking trip in the North Cascades with a group of friends. Overall, it was a great experience. Though the first couple days included such unpleasantnesses as hiking UP this . . .. . . in a pair of glorified sneakers and a poncho, the trip also gave me my first opportunity to wake up in the morning, roll out a tent, and see a view like this . . . . . . so I guess it was worth it. Also, this was one of the uglier plants we passed on the side of the trail:It's an incredible world God has given us.

P.S. The first two pictures are of Spider Gap and Glacier Peak (as seen from Image Lake), respectively.