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These scientists persevered, just as religious martyrs stayed true to their beliefs. And through these accomplishments better understanding of natural laws and processes have made the world a better place for all of us. These laws and principles are typically outside of religious focus, and yet they most certainly are a class of actors in the play called life.
Most of the rest of this chapter concerns things, or the sets in the play that is being performed on earth by natural processes, by life, and by mankind, and with minimal interference from the director, God. These things include: the physics and the chemical interactions of atoms and molecules; geologically derived raw materials; boats and tides and currents and beaches - all of which are associated with the oceans; water and hydrocarbons and gardens and houses and buildings and cities, all from the land; wind and clouds and lightening and thunder and rain and snow and ice and meteors from the atmosphere and beyond; and residual material from biologic processes, like hemp and wood and bones and leather and meat and other things, that which sustains and protects life. These things are a very important part of our individual lives. We can not exist without weapons for protection, without food, without clothing, without shelter, without transportation, without work (which involves building or manufacturing things or providing services, which typically help others to optimally acquire or use or dispose of things), and hobbies (which are often built around cloth and music and books and sports equipment and other things). These things are certainly an important class of actors throughout our lifetime of interactions with the physical world.
For many of us, a logical derivative of the facts we have accumulated and the feelings we have personally experienced is that the prime actor on earth is God.
Yet to others, this belief in God is illogical and superstitious. Today we see ourselves as being much more sophisticated than people of ancient times or than those from cultures we do not understand. We tend to quickly pass them off as simple and superstitious peoples. After all, we understand sunlight, gravity, fire, snow, frost, ice, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, eustatics (sea level rise and fall with ice ages), plate tectonics, metamorphism, erosion, tides, currents, gas hydrates, global warming, rain, storms, hurricanes, floods, winds, tornadoes, and numerous other natural phenomena in great detail. We do not assign a god to each entity, nor to each process. Rather, based on derived laws of mathematics and physics and geology and chemistry and biology, we explain each process in terms of natural laws.
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paradoxes