We worship, rather than conquer nature (2), By Sunday Adelaja (www.premiumtimesng.com)

If Africa and African countries are to not just enjoy the fruit of economic growth, but if we are to gain from the benefit of civilisation, we must consciously uproot from our society, the paganistic world view to nature. We must intentionally deliver our people from the grips and the claws of paganism, polytheism and animism.

That practice in Africa, when people submit to nature, when they honor nature when they revere the forces of nature, this reverence which often takes the form of worship, idolatry, polytheism and paganism, will always lead to backwardness and under development. This is the sole reason why all African progressives must declare war against these kinds of practices and belief systems.

The Judeo-Christian Worldview 

So what do we replace it with? We have to replace this paganistic world view with biblical world view. What is the difference? In the Judeo-Christian world view of life, we are told that man is not secondary to nature, nor is he inferior to it. As a matter of fact, the Bible categorically declares that man is in fact the crown of creation. The Bible goes on to declare to us that man therefore has the responsibility and the commandment of God to conquer, dominate and subdue all nature to the glory of God.

That is to say in cases when flood, waters or oceans overflows our community, villages or towns, we don’t begin to appease or worship it. We should rather affirm our dominance over that segment of nature by going for more insight and education on how to subdue and conquer the flow of that river. We should put our effort not in the fears of its devastations or consequences. We should rather develop our passion in the direction of curtailing the over flow. If we don’t know how to do it, that should rather become a factor of stimulation to get more education in the areas of irrigation and water dam.

On the other hand, when nature like rivers and floods are viewed as deities, people don’t touch them. They cannot go into deep research of reason behind the flood. But when we know that we are the master of nature, we could go to study the root cause of the flood, river or ocean. That study will give us insight into how to build a defensive wall to protect the flow of the water to our communities, villages and cities.

When we have a world view that says we are the lords of nature, we already in our minds see ourselves as superior to any form of forces of nature. We see them as under us. It therefore becomes easy for us to explore them, study them, research them and control them.

For Africa to move forward towards development and civilization, we must stop worshiping nature. But rather we have to begin to control and subdue nature.  We subdue nature by studying it. We subdue nature by researching more about it. We subdue nature by exploring it. We subdue nature by exploiting it. We subdue nature by surveying it.

Development therefore is directly related to world views. To bring about development of a nation or continent, it is not enough to only have economic programs. We must first of all bring about development to the minds and belief systems of our people. I believe that we have to critically examine belief systems that don’t facilitate growth in our cultures and reject them. I believe we should not allow ignorance to hide behind phrases like “our tradition”, “our culture” etc. let’s uncover the ignorance. Let the light come. Let’s set lose the man to his true place of dominance and supremacy over nature.

How We Are Made to Function

When a people have the right world view, they believe what the Bible says. Gen. 1:26

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

For our world to function, we must observe God’s order of creation. According to God’s order of creation, man is created in the image and likeness of God. What that does to man is that it elevates man over every other thing that He created. Man therefore has no right to ever be afraid of anything created. Man does not have the right to be afraid of natural disasters. We are created to subdue them.

Natural disasters no matter how fierce they are, must be conquered by the man who was created to rule over them. This is a question of responsibility. We must take responsibility for our duty and see it as our obligation to subdue the earth for God. It is indeed our responsibility to take charge of anything in nature that is going out of order. We bring back to order any natural catastrophe. We must work to defeat and dominate them.

Man is to overpower and overcome all manifestations of the forces of nature either in the sea, in the air, on the earth or under the earth. In the same vein according to this verse above, the sea world is under the authority of man, so man should not be running away or worshiping sharks, whales, hippopotamus, crocodiles, alligators, etc. we should manage them. It is not just our right but our duty from God Almighty.

Anything that happens in the sea world from the flow of water to the sizes of the sea are all to be under the direct monitoring of man. The fish world is supposed to be subject to man. The water world should be subject to man. We should be using water to meet the needs of man. We are supposed to use water to facilitate the needs of man, use water and the force of rivers to bring about human progress and development. We should not be shying away from exploiting rivers and the sea world in general.

Thank God for the nations who had experienced a true understanding of the Christian doctrine. The early European Christians, understood the message of the cross and the injunctions of the Bible.  Thanks to them and their Christian world view, we now have to our use the services of boats, ships, submarines, oil tankers, off shore drilling machines and equipment’s, etc.

Sunday Adelaja is a Nigeria born leader, transformation strategist, pastor and innovator. He was based in Kiev Ukraine

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