Science and religion are not opposites —the one asks "how" and the other "who."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 17, 1997

An encounter with God in the wilderness has changed my thinking to a more ecological spirituality and made the earth's history and her story of great interest.

Fossil records and contemporary molecular biology show that the earth is very old, around 4.6 billion years, and mankind is very young, around two million years old. Life has been around 3.8 billion years. Of the billions of species that have existed before humankind 99.9% are extinct. The average species lasted 4 million years.

Dinosaurs roamed the earth only two-hundred-and-thirty million years ago and manlike creatures seven million years ago. It is no accident that seventy-one percent of our substance consists of salty water, just as seventy-one percent of the earth is covered by ocean. The genetic instructions in human beings and other biological forms on the earth are written in the same language with the same code book. Every woman's womb restates the drama of the origin of life in the gestation of every embryo, from one-cell protozoan through all the phases of gill breathing and amphibian, to mammalian evolution.

Religion and science can no longer be separate. God is not "out there" somewhere, but in the soil, in the trees, in us and in all of creation. Science and religion are not opposites —the one asks "how" and the other "who."

In two million years humankind has managed to overpopulate the world with six billion people and become toxic to the earth. The stability of the world's climate is at risk, half the shorelines are dying, coral reefs are sick everywhere and large numbers of ocean fish and land animals have significantly decreased or disappeared. Environmentalists warn that the earth is warmer because humankind is generating extra carbon dioxide. This could result in higher ocean levels, violent storms and an ice age. They are concerned—the planet's water and air is being systematically poisoned by human wastes and ask that we stop destroying the world, for there is no place to which we can retreat, no planet in outer space that can provide refuge. If we continue to overpopulate and destroy mother earth by eliminating her animals and forests, polluting her water and air, we too will become extinct.

We have the technology to clean up our water and air. Instead, we allow our valuable natural resources and public health standards to be set by corporate profit margins.

A person of faith, whether they are Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Islam or Jewish needs to meditate on the history of humankind, the Earth and the universe. Our universe is only one among billions of universes. God is not two million years old, like us. We are not the first to be made in God's image. God's Spirit is in the whole of creation and everything has divine power. We are part of the earth, and, we, the earth and all our relatives, are sacred. The Western tradition looks down on nature by emphasizing original sin. It is an insult to God, the creator of our 13.7 billion-year–old universe. Sin originated with two-million-year-old humankind.

Some Christians believe the Second Coming of Christ will not be the bodily return of Christ, but the dawning consciousness of the divinity of the planet. The time has come to see the beauty, wonder and grace in God’s creation. Mother Earth and her inhabitants are our teachers the 56-million-year-old whale is our elder.

We need to take care of all of creation, the earth, plants and animals.

Spending time in nature is not just another approach to fulfillment. Connecting with the body of the earth is our birthright and our salvation.