So the urbane myth is that there is another version of genesis in Lucretius that turns out to be surprisingly similar to genesis.
OK, full disclosure, I am the author.
The mistake at issue is laid out very clearly at the beginning: That to presume "Natural" as being equivalent to "no influence from people," believing "Nature" to be a self-optimizing system but only if people are not involved, is a very dangerous and destructive thing to the productivity of "wildland" habitat, PARTICULARLY when that landscape has been shaped by people for 10,000 years. It is a philosophy that defines wildland management to this day and it carries a presumptive primacy in law. The way that this belief has modified our ability to see what we are looking at is perhaps its most destructive attribute.
The way Lucretius presents it, nature was self-generating, but the way he describes it is very much coherent with the story as told in Genesis, but without benefit of a god. The Enlightenment philosophers took that idea and ran with it.
It is also true that the philosophers did mistakenly adopt the same foundations to their thinking as what they thought they were repudiating.
For them as for us—God stands outside of nature.
I see the form the world takes as a manifestation of how the Lord set things up to work based upon our choices. He holds us accountable for the results too and teaches how we are to recognize whether we are keeping the Law in the shape the landscape takes. Moreover, I can show how even weather is modified by whether or not we keep the Law, as given, not as interpreted. I know that's a tall order, but that's what it says. The archaeological and geophysical record bears that out too.
The word translated as "create" in Genesis (bara) actually means to shape a preexisting workpiece. Be sure to read the entire page including opening up the Genesius' lexicon entry.
I hope that answers your questions; thanks for asking.
Man's place in nature or his ability to modify the world around him depended on whether he was a hunter/gatherer, a farmer, or an industrialist. You can tell a lot about the man/nature relationship by looking at the man's religion and myths.
As for the Enlightenment, you can't look at that in isolation. You have to take Frances Bacon and the scientific method, plus the Enlightenment, plus the industrial revolution. Before Bacon, knowledge/technology was closely guarded, but after Bacon knowledge would be widely disseminated.
Obviously the pre-columbian Amerindians modified their world. But modern man tends to exaggerate that by degree and ability. Probably because modern man feels guilty about raping and plundering Mother Nature and the Nobel Savage
I gotta go to WalMart now. They have Round-Up on sale. I will need it this spring to kill the weeds and honeybees.
Well here’s my prejudice and boast.
Human history and prehistory are utterly dynamic. Here is an interactive map of prehistoric migrations. http://www.dnalc.org/view/15892-Human-migrations-map-interactive-2D-animation.html
When you look at the moving lines of migration you realize that every time people moved they had to figure out how to acquire new sources of food and water from new territory.
Our condition today is no different. We have to figure out how to get new sources of food/energy and water to have a successful 21st century. Bill Gates has done a good job of publicly recognizing the importance of energy in his Ted Speach of 2010. http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates.html Further he has started a 4th generation nuclear power company called TerraPower.
Last summer, I published an ebook on Amazon entitled “Collapsing Water and
Energy Costs: How Bill Gates [Or You!] Can Create the Inventions That
Spark the Next Industrial and Agricultural Revolution” http://www.amazon.com/kindle-store/dp/B0089Z7V6Y
(ahem, I’ve actually made $100 in sales on this ebook.)
Already two of the recommendations have been acted on. The first recommendation was that Mr Gates take an interest in thorium lftr R&D— which his people have done. Another recommendation was that an oil company take an interest in lftr designs —which recently shell did.
The ebook has more recommendations including a way for a do-it- your-selfer to create a new kind of internal combustion engine.
There is also a civilization organizing idea: The path to the deserts of the moon and mars leads through the deserts of the earth. And one more. The way to create the capital base to make that jump into space is to collapse the cost of energy via lftr thorium reactors.