totara park

All of the pictures for today's post were taken at a park that’s about five minutes away from the house we’re staying in. Totara Park is a large reserve that abuts the Auckland Botanical Gardens. Totara has many well maintained paths for tramping (hiking). You can wander around hilltops or plunge into dense thickets, follow the meandering journey of the Puhinui Creek or lazily tread the lush green meadows with the grazing cows. There is also an incredible lookout point with great view of the Auckland isthmus. Simply put this park is beautiful. Did I mention that it’s only 5 minutes away? Who’s jealous?

The beauty of creation continually amazes me. There’s beauty in the land around St. Louis but I think we tend to take for granted that which we see everyday. Several times since being in New Zealand I’ve had to just stand in silence and look around in awe. The crazy thing is that I’m told the Auckland area, and the North Island in general, is pretty drab when compared to the scenery on the South Island. I can’t wait to travel there in about a month.

When I look at all this beauty I can’t understand how some people are devoted to the idea that it all came about as a completely random and mindless fluke. I know how a person can theoretically accept that macroevolution is a logical explanation for the existence of things. However, apart from the fact that this theory doesn’t stand up to true scientific scrutiny, how can one look around them and seriously believe it’s all a big cosmic accident? How can such a person have any appreciation for the exquisite beauty of the created world? I know some do, but I just don’t get it.

When I look at the diversity, intricacy, order, and interdependent nature of the world it seems obvious that someone or something had to design it. Many people will say that I’m avoiding true science and projecting my religious “values” onto the facts. But, to adapt an oft used illustration, if one were to find a pocket watch with diverse, intricate, interdependent parts that worked together in an orderly fashion wouldn’t it be natural, scientific, and sane to wonder who designed it? If believing this makes me a religious nut, then a religious nut I’ll be.

I’m not trying to say that merely looking at the created world proves Christianity to be true (it doesn’t). However, for a society like the one in New Zealand that is increasingly secular and atheistic maybe the first step at reaching people is simply getting them to take a long look at the glory that surrounds them.