A Book—A Clock—A Law Governed Realm …Episode 2: The Watchmaker and His Clockwork Nature:

A Book—A Clock—A Law Governed Realm
Another Chapter in my Awareness of God’s Wisdom and His Creation
James 1:5
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Episode 2:
The Watchmaker and His Clockwork Nature:

Luke 19
When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
38 
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” [b]
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

What did Jesus mean when He said the stones would cry out if the Pharisees silenced people? The imagery is blunt yet sharp in context.  Isaiah 55:12 says, “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” Throughout Psalm 148, there are numerous examples of created things praising their Creator—the sun, moon, stars, heavens, water, sky, animals, and people. Everyone and everything was created for the pleasure of the sovereign Lord.

Throughout creation history, from the fall of angels and humanity, the conflict between heaven and earth has captivated the minds of many. As knowledge has expanded, wisdom, particularly God-given wisdom, has diminished. Philosophers, scientists, artists, and great thinkers have debated materialism versus theism, the physical versus the metaphysical. Those who have been endowed by God with great intellect now often find themselves at odds with Him and the truth. In their relentless pursuit to silence the voices of believers—those who can see the unseen and understand the wisdom attained through a relationship with God—they overlook a vital truth.

I believe that intellect can be a limitation for many, as logic and reason cannot truly grasp God’s character and love. Knowing God requires a child’s perspective, one that is free from the clutter of rational and materialistic confusion in the world. A spirit that is born anew is essential for this understanding.

John 3:1-21
3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus[a] by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again[b] he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

4 They do not believe because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil God of this world. He keeps them from seeing the light shining on them, the light that comes from the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.— 2 Corinthians 4:4

As Jesus said to the unbelieving Pharisees, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Stephen Meyer writes in the book, ‘Return of the God Hypothesis:’
Leading natural philosophers during the scientific revolution commonly employed another metaphor. They often referred to nature as a clock—or, more generally, as a machine. The metaphor implied both the contingency and intelligibility of nature since a good craftsman can make many different kinds of clocks to accomplish the same end; it implied the intelligibility of nature because, like the clocks of the great medieval towers, the clockworks of nature were designed by a rational agent—thus making discernible the mechanisms upon which the orderly concourse of nature depends. Boyle described nature: “Tis like a rare Clock such as maybe that at Strasbourg, where all things are so skillfully contrived, that the engine being once set a moving, all things proceed according to the Artificer’s first design.”

As I mentioned in episode 1, ‘The Book of Nature,’ my photography passion concentrates my mind on the things of God’s creation. My curiosity is always beyond an in-depth understanding of science and math, supporting my curious wonder of God’s design. I am content to see God’s excellent, beautiful, glorious design in all creation. I pray daily for God’s Wisdom and Discernment so that I may see and understand His presence. Evidence of God, the Watchmaker, is everywhere—the deeper I look at creation, knock, and seek—the more I find. I take photos and never knew how the placement of elements in a photograph made all the difference between a snapshot and a beautiful piece of art. The placement just came naturally to me—it is God-given.

The perfect example I use is the “Golden Ratio” of nature, ubiquitous across nature and used in photography. Forgive me for attempting to describe the science, the excellent design of our Watchmaker—God.

The golden ratio was called the extreme and mean ratio by Euclid, and other names also known as the divine proportion by Luca Pacioli. The golden ratio appears in some patterns in nature, including the spiral arrangement of leaves and other parts of vegetation. Man’s design is also relative to this ratio—our arms from the soldier to the elbow  and from elbow to hand approximate the golden ratio—

Some of the greatest mathematical minds of all ages, from Pythagoras and Euclid in ancient Greece, through the medieval Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa and the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler, to present-day scientific figures such as Oxford physicist Roger Penrose, have spent endless hours over this simple ratio and its properties. … Biologists, artists, musicians, historians, architects, psychologists, and even mystics have pondered and debated the basis of its ubiquity and appeal. It is probably fair to say that the Golden Ratio (1.61803398874989484820…) has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other number in the history of mathematics.

Drawing It
Here is one way to draw a rectangle with the Golden Ratio:
Draw a square of size “1”
Place a dot halfway along one side
Draw a line from that point to an opposite corner
Now turn that line so that it runs along the square’s side
Then you can extend the square to be a rectangle with the Golden Ratio!—The Golden Rectangle 1 to 1.618033988…

Beauty
This rectangle has been made using the golden ratio. It looks like a typical frame for a painting.
Some artists and architects believe the Golden Ratio makes the most pleasing and beautiful shape.

Fibonacci Sequence
There is a special relationship between the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Sequence:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, …
(The following number is found by adding the two numbers before it.)
And here is a surprise: when we take any two successive (one after the other) Fibonacci Numbers, their ratio is very close to the Golden Ratio.  The bigger the pair of Fibonacci Numbers, the closer the approximation.

Enough of this mind-bending thought, but I must say heavenly design elements and evidence of God’s Glory in everything He made grow my hunger to know more. To see the evidence of God’s design in everything, from Biology to cosmology, Mathematics, and Art, is an answer to my prayers for wisdom. God made us in His image, and he designed and created all things perfect. Knowing this, we can apply what God gave us to all things—even taking a great photograph.

My knowledge of math is primordial, so describing the golden spiral as (A logarithmic spiral whose radius increases by a factor of the golden ratio for each quarter-turn is called the golden spiral.) My simple thinking requires visuals; the Golden Ratio and the Golden Spiral are best described in nature, where it is displayed everywhere:

Photography utilizes the golden ratio when composing images, placing the contents of the image into God’s ratio, the perfect image. Our sight sees the material and rational, but our mind’s eye sees beyond the material and rational into something beyond light, color, meaning, and the fantastic creation story.

As I look through the lens of my camera, I can see this ratio without force. I can see beyond the material elements before me to know what is within the unseeable. There is no magic; it is just God showing me how to worship his creation and see Him, the Watchmaker of the Clock of Nature.

God speaks to us through all He created. Every rock screams of God; every flower, tree, insect, star, galaxy, and nebula screams of God’s hand as the Watchmaker.