FROM DIATOMS TO LIVING TEMPLES

INTELLIGENT MEN DECIPHERING “INTELLIGENT DESIGNSâ€:

“For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.†Hebrews,†3.

“All of Nature is but a metaphor of the human mind.†Emerson

It is illogical to assume that physical, mental and spiritual designs can be more complex than the artist/creator of the designs.

Living Designs

In the early 17th century, natural “philosophers,†using the light microscope, began to see things that could not be seen with the naked eye. Englishman Robert Hooke observed pockets of air within cork, which he called “cells;†Dutch scientist Anton van Leeuwenhoek saw “wee cavorting beasties†in samples of pond water. I strongly suspect that he also saw images like this array of desmids and diatoms in a drop of pond water.

The origin of words has always fascinated me. In biology, many of the structures are self-explanatory; that is if you know Latin or Greek. The word “ecology†is a good example. The word is derived from the Greek words “oikosâ€= house and “logos,â€= the study of: ergo ecology is the study of “houses.â€Â  Whoever coined the word fully comprehended the fact that every living thing lives in a “house†and the study of the interactions of all living “houses†emerged as ecology. John Muir was an “ecologist†before the term was coined.

Spiritual Designs

With annual sales of over 100 million copies, there are estimates that over 5 billion Bibles have been printed. Regarded by many scholars as the “world’s greatest novelist,†Charles Dickens was often at odds with the “formal church†yet he opined:

“The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world.â€

I suspect that if John Muir were asked, he would have agreed with Dickens. Muir carried a pocket version of the “New Testament and Psalms†with him nearly everywhere he traveled.

Religious arguments are generally a waste of time, however, there can be some areas of agreement. E.g., St. Paul’s contention that every human being is actually a “temple,†is a concept that is not incompatible with many world religions and many people who may not consider themselves as “religious,†but regard themselves as “spiritual beings.â€

Understandably, modern scientists, atheists and agnostics are not equipped to deal with a spiritual parallel universe, however, St. Paul’s concept was not only clear to Dickens, it was perfectly clear to John Muir who saw Yosemite Valley as a pure reflection of the temple that he was.

It was fun to see students discover that they were “living, breathing, walking houses;†however, regardless of their religious or nonreligious background, it was thrilling to see some of them begin to regard themselves as “living, breathing, walking temples.â€

As a retired, holistic-biology teacher, it is disheartening to see that, in the name of “political correctness,†our public schools and universities are being “spiritually sanitized†and millions of students are tacitly being taught that they are meaningless, soulless, random acts of chance and competition.

I have returned from Yosemite and Grand Canyon with 100s of high school seniors, nearly all of whom saw visions marvels and wonders that they could not describe in words. Regardless of whether they saw themselves as “temples†or not, nearly all of them felt renewed and spiritually invigorated with an enhanced sense of hope, purpose and meaning.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

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