02 November 2009

I had an interesting conversation with John MacMurray after he spoke at the Story09 conference last week.

With him being a nature photographer and theologian I thought I'd ask him his take on the death of nature, and why we still seem to find it beautiful on some level.

My personal belief is that there was no death in the Garden of Eden. It was perfect in every way. Animals didn't eat each other, plants didn't die and there were no seasons with temperatures making it difficult for humans to survive.

Mr. MacMurray doesn't necessarily share this belief, but was kind enough to engage me in the conversation about the death of natural elements like trees, and how we can still find beauty in them since they are inherently beautiful works or art from a loving Creator.

I enjoyed the conversation. Over the next few days I had time to ponder the fact that it's typically nature that remains beautiful in death and not things we make ourselves.

Case-in-point: Websites.

I love looking at photographs of snow, dead trees lying in forests, moss and algae eating away at things and the lines left in rock from the eroding effects of water. But there is NOTHING beautiful about a bad website.

Why? According to John, it wasn't inherently beautiful to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, humans can create beautiful works of art. But everything man creates is not beautiful just for the sake of it's creation.

I guess that's why our website is a constant work in progress...