Bethel University - Spire Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

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Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill Man!Stop!Think!Haste Makes Waste! Be still and know that I am God Psalms 46:10. The one natural phenomena that fascinates me is the Balance of Nature that God created and saw it was very good. (Gen. 1:31) The Laws of Nature speak to man that: Snow-shoes are better than snowmobiles Canoes are better than motorboats Legs are better than cars or In other words, man is producing waste faster than nature can dispose of the by-products of our fast technological age. and man is not getting his proper exercise. One beautiful case of the balance of nature is the ecology of the soil where there are thousands of microbes (decomposers as bacteria, mold, virus, etc.) that are active and specific in the chemical breakdown of dead animal and plant life and decomposable waste from man into soluble compounds for green plants to feed on and start the various food chains that make up the balance of nature for the preservation of mankind. These food chains can be upset by the use of poisonous chemicals and improper agricultural methods. Everywhere in our environment one can note that when a vegetation community such as forest or prairie or aquatic is destroyed by fire or insects or disease or man. that nature will gradually restore such a community. In nature one can see God’s mercy on man in spite of his sins in not being good stewards of the earth. The problem with man is his haste or hurry - he can't wait for the natural laws to operate. As yet man has not learned his lesson that “Haste makes Waste.” Russell Johnson Mr. Russell Johnson Mr, Tom Goff

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only 1000 years. Isn’t It amazing to know that out of all of those God knows you by name, not number. 1 Debbie Wessel 2. Tim Olson 3. Dan Freeberg 4 8rian Howard 5. Ed Babcock 6 Rachel Wall 7. Patti Jeffries 8. Krista Swedberg 9. Jennifer Grubs 10. Wayne Hallquist 11 Bruce Larson 12. Patty Swanson Peeper 13. Virginia Nelson Debbie Keck 14. Becky Petersen 15. Tekle Selassie 16. Denny Whitlock Dan Mocgk Rick Ball Phil Swanson 17. BobVork 18. Bicycles 19. DaveMcSparran David Unger Paul Geery 20. Cindy Schemp Gay Stone 21. Randy Eastlund Steve Welch 22. Jill Johnson Joyce Warkentien Joan Youngquist Teri James 23. Sleeper 24. Jane Dalton 25 Kevin Norberg 26. Debbie Toy 27. Jim Farnham Craig Johnson 28. Nancy Lundholm Dave Johnson Paul King Kim Potter 29 A pyramid 30. Dr. Virgil Olsen Mrs. Lundquist Dr. Carl Lundquist 31. A crowd

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Unlike people in many other cultures, we see man’s basic role as that of dominating nature, rather than as living in harmony with it. This entire problem has been elegantly discussed by Professor Lynn White. Jr., in Science magazine. He points out, for instance, that before the Christian era trees, springs, hills, streams, and other objects of nature had guardian spirits. These spirits had to be ap proached and placated before one could safely invade their territory. As White says. “By destroying pagan animism. Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects.” Christianity fostered the wide spread of basic ideas of “progress” and of time as something linear, nonrepeating, and absolute, flowing from the future into the past. Such ideas were foreign to the Greeks and Romans, who had a cyclical (repeating) view of time and could not envision the world as having a beginning. Although a modern physicist’s view of time might be somewhat closer to that of the Greeks than the Christians, it is obvious that the Christian view is the one held by most of us. God designed and started the whole business for our benefit. He made a world for us to dominate and exploit. Both science and technology can clearly be seen to have their historical roots in natural theology and the Christian dogma of man’s rightful mastery over nature. Therefore, as White claims, it is probably in vain that so many look to science and technology to solve our present ecological crisis. Much more basic changes are needed, perhaps of the type exemplified by the much despised hippie” movement-a movement that adopts most of its religious ideas from the non-Christian East. It is a movement wrapped up in Zen Buddhism, physical love, and a disdain for material wealth. It is small wonder that our society is horrified at hippies’ behavior-it goes against our most cherished religious and ethical ideas. I think it would be well if those of us who are totally ensnared in the non-hip part of our culture paid a great deal of attention to the movement, rather than condemn it our of hand. They may not have the answer, but they may have an answer. At the very least they are asking the proper questions. Here is what White, a churchman, has to say: Both our present science and our present technology are so tinctured with orthodox Christian arrogance toward nature that no solution for our ecological crisis can be expected from them alone. Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. Dr. Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb, 1968. pp. 170-72