UCC members: The materials these questions relate to will be emailed to you immediately after the September 30, 2012 class. Please reflect on the passages cited and try to answer the questions on your own.
Other readers: See the Creation 2.0 page to find the materials these questions relate to.
1. Moses wrote,
(Gen 2:15 NAS) 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
“Keep” refers to protecting or preserving. If we take this command as continuing today, what duties do Christians have today that flow from this passage?
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2. Don’t the commands seem contradictory? How can you both preserve and cultivate the world?
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3. David wrote,
(Psa 104:24-32) How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
25 There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number – living things both large and small. 26 There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.
27 These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. 28 When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.
31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works – 32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
What does this say about God’s relationship with nature?
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4. How is God’s relationship with nature similar to what ours is supposed to be?
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5. Paul and David wrote,
(Rom 1:20) For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
(Psa 8:3-4) When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
What do these tell us about the relationship of science to God?
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6. Does nature still shout the glory of God when we view it through a telescope or microscope?
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