Academia asserts that the natural world is the result of uncomplicated basic elements acted on by simple forces in an entirely random and undirected manner. But common sense alone teaches us that the material world is irreducibly complex and its features are obviously the result of a purposeful plan.  Every year millions of words are written and hundreds of thousands of research studies are conducted that do little more than raise even more questions about how things work and how they are made to work.

[Click on the photos to enlarge]

In spite of the arguments of those who deny the existence of a Creator, the creation defies simple explanation.  From massive cosmic forces to subatomic particles, the natural world is unrelenting in yielding up only more complexity and more evidence of purpose.  George MacDonald used the purposefulness of the creation to touch the heart of the key character in his novel The Musician’s Quest. Agnostic Robert Falconer had gone to the wilderness for solitude and rest, but found himself pondering whether the natural world might have its source in a supernatural Creator.

Now working in Falconer’s mind was the dull and faint movement of the greatest need that the human heart possesses-the need of God.  There must be a truth in the scent of that pinewood; someone must mean it.  There must be a glory in those heavens that depends not upon our imagination; some power greater than they must dwell in them.  Some spirit must move in that wind that haunts us with a kind of human sorrow; some soul must look up to us from the eye of that starry flower.  Little did Robert think that such was his need-that his soul was searching after the One whose form was constantly presented to him, but as constantly obscured by words without knowledge spoken in the religious assemblies of the land. [And scientific assemblies as well -DO]

The truth of this was eloquently spoken by a child walking with his dad in the woods—the son of one of my friends: “It’s easy to believe in God when you’re outdoors, isn’t it, Dad?”

The other day I was taking pictures of wildflowers in “my” old orchard and sensed, like MacDonald, that if nothing else convinces folks of the existence of the Creator, the beauty and design of flowers certainly ought to.  When I got home and looked at the close-up of a daisy, I was awed again at its design.  It brought to my mind the “beautiful” mathematics of the Fibonacci number sequence that is found throughout nature.  Now as one who is “numbers challenged,” I can assure you I don’t understand the equations that “prove” the validity of the sequence.  But I know the beauty of it.  It is found in pinecones, flowers, the chambered nautilus, leaves on plants, and limbs on trees—among many other creatures.  Follow the links below to learn more about the natural patterns that show the Fibonacci sequence.

Fibonacci Numbers

Google Images of the Fibonacci sequence in nature

See you outdoors!

Dean