XII. Foresight and PrecautionThe death of God also has consequences for our view of the natural world, which is full of “shadows of God.” We must remain on guard against allowing these “shadows” to falsify our understanding of nature. It is only when nature becomes entirely “undeified” that we will be able to “naturalize ourselves by means of the pure, newly discovered, newly redeemed as nature.” The bulk of Section 109 consists of a list of ways in which nature is “deified”, along with the reasons for being on our guard against them. There are several ways of viewing the natural world against which we should be on our guard: as a living thing, as a machine, as an imitation of humanity, as subject to “laws”, as containing enduring substances. Each of these in some way is a consequence of trying to relate the natural world to some divinity.
A. The World as Organism
The organisms we perceive only on “the crust of the earth” are interpreted as being the essential, the universal and the eternal. But themselves are actually only derivative, rare, and accidental.
B. The World as a Machine
A machine is constructed with a view toward a single end, but there is no discernible end for the existence of the world. The model of the world as a machine is the observed universe. But the “astral arrangement in which we live is an exception” and its order should not be regarded as typical. The universe as a whole is chaotic, lacking in “order, structure, form, beauty, wisdom, and whatever else our aesthetic humanities are called.” The order we find is not even “lucky” as this implies the assignment of blame or praise to the universe, which cannot be praised or blamed.
C. The World as Governed by Law
There is no moral order of the world. In fact, there are only necessities in nature. But the necessities are not based on such things as “commands,” and what acts from necessity does not obey. There is no chance in the world. Chance is only what occurs outside the framework of design but there I no design in the world.
