God and Nature Winter 2021
letter from the editors |
|
By Sy Garte and Aniko Albert
Happy New Year, and happy winter to all our readers! This is a special anniversary issue, the first of its kind for God and Nature. To celebrate the ten years since God and Nature began, we have decided to re-publish a selection of material from the first five years of the magazine.
The hardest part of putting this together was choosing which of the first-class essays, poetry, and photos to include. There are many more treasures that could be featured in a future retrospective issue. No editing or updating was done for any of these pieces, and the original illustrations are included. Each contribution is from a different issue. In addition, we have introductions from the three people who got God and Nature started and kept it going for the first part of its life.
Tom Burnett began God and Nature as a blog in 2011. Emily Ruppel (now Emily Ruppel Herrington) became the first editor of God and Nature when it became an online magazine in 2012. She remained at the helm until 2018. Randy Isaac, ASA’s former Executive Director, played a major role in getting the magazine started and continued to be active in keeping everything functioning from the early days up to the present.
The first essay is Tom Burnett’s January 2011 blog post on the origin of life, featuring Stephen Freeland. Another crucial person in the start of God and Nature was the late Walt Hearn. We have included one of his classic essays from the Spring 2012 issue.
In 2013, Tim Middleton was a graduate student whose essay on natural theology in the Winter 2013 issue was runner-up in the Christians in Science 2012 Student Essay Contest in the United Kingdom. Craig Story’s discussion of antibody biology back in the Winter 2014 issue is of great interest at the present time of crucial vaccine development.
Denis Lamoureux’s personal story of depression, medication, and faith was an inspiring testament to spiritual and physical health in the Spring of 2014, as it is today. Janet Warren contributed a moving and eloquent piece to the Summer 2014 issue about the brain, mental health, and faith.
Randy Isaac’s brilliant essay contribution from the Winter 2015 issue is on the meaning of information. Ruth Bancewicz wrote an essay on science, faith, and wonder for the Spring 2015 issue. This thoughtful and inspiring piece quotes several well- known Christian scientists and their approach to wonder as a key component of the scientific and religious worldview.
A name familiar to recent readers of God and Nature, John Pohl had a poem published in the Fall 2015 issue. John proved himself to be not just a physician with a flair for writing powerful essays but also an accomplished poet with a passion for natural history and the meaning of deep time.
Our regular columnist Mike Clifford penned a refreshing and entertaining essay about how to use drama in teaching back in the Fall 2014.
Of course, no issue of GAN would be the same without the remarkable photos of Thomas Jay Oord, also a regular columnist. In this issue we present no fewer that 16 of Tom’s photos as they were originally published, with brief captions, in the Fall of 2012.
We also decided to also include a set of three new photos by Aniko, with a brief comment by Sy. Because of the Winter theme, and the turmoil of these times, we thought it would be forgivable to make this exception to keeping the issue entirely of material from years past.
Our prayer is that readers of these beautiful previous contributions to God and Nature will be inspired to submit their own essays, poetry, and artwork for future issues of the magazine. As of this writing, there are plenty of slots available for the Spring issue, which hopefully will be an exciting time of renewal and re-awakening after the gloom of the previous year. Please send in your essays, poetry, artwork etc. as soon as possible, and before the middle of March. Also please take a look at the Author Guidelines before submitting. Thanks, and enjoy the issue!
Sy Garte Ph.D. Biochemistry, is Editor-in-Chief of God and Nature. He has been a Professor of Public Health and Environmental Health Sciences at New York University, Rutgers University, and the University of Pittsburgh. He was also Associate Director at the Center for Scientific Review at the NIH. He is the author of five books, over 200 scientific papers, and articles in PSCF, God and Nature and The BioLogos Forum. Sy is Vice President of the Washington DC ASA Chapter, and a fellow of the ASA. He is the author of The Works of His Hands: A Scientist's Journey from Atheism to Faith.
Aniko Albert grew up in Budapest, Hungary, and is a graduate of Eötvös Loránd University. A serial migrant, she taught English as a Foreign Language in her hometown, high-school Spanish in Kingston, Jamaica, and English and various subjects in Alameda, California. She is currently the Managing Editor of God and Nature, and Co-Chair of Rockville Help, an emergency assistance charitable organization in Rockville, Maryland.
Happy New Year, and happy winter to all our readers! This is a special anniversary issue, the first of its kind for God and Nature. To celebrate the ten years since God and Nature began, we have decided to re-publish a selection of material from the first five years of the magazine.
The hardest part of putting this together was choosing which of the first-class essays, poetry, and photos to include. There are many more treasures that could be featured in a future retrospective issue. No editing or updating was done for any of these pieces, and the original illustrations are included. Each contribution is from a different issue. In addition, we have introductions from the three people who got God and Nature started and kept it going for the first part of its life.
Tom Burnett began God and Nature as a blog in 2011. Emily Ruppel (now Emily Ruppel Herrington) became the first editor of God and Nature when it became an online magazine in 2012. She remained at the helm until 2018. Randy Isaac, ASA’s former Executive Director, played a major role in getting the magazine started and continued to be active in keeping everything functioning from the early days up to the present.
The first essay is Tom Burnett’s January 2011 blog post on the origin of life, featuring Stephen Freeland. Another crucial person in the start of God and Nature was the late Walt Hearn. We have included one of his classic essays from the Spring 2012 issue.
In 2013, Tim Middleton was a graduate student whose essay on natural theology in the Winter 2013 issue was runner-up in the Christians in Science 2012 Student Essay Contest in the United Kingdom. Craig Story’s discussion of antibody biology back in the Winter 2014 issue is of great interest at the present time of crucial vaccine development.
Denis Lamoureux’s personal story of depression, medication, and faith was an inspiring testament to spiritual and physical health in the Spring of 2014, as it is today. Janet Warren contributed a moving and eloquent piece to the Summer 2014 issue about the brain, mental health, and faith.
Randy Isaac’s brilliant essay contribution from the Winter 2015 issue is on the meaning of information. Ruth Bancewicz wrote an essay on science, faith, and wonder for the Spring 2015 issue. This thoughtful and inspiring piece quotes several well- known Christian scientists and their approach to wonder as a key component of the scientific and religious worldview.
A name familiar to recent readers of God and Nature, John Pohl had a poem published in the Fall 2015 issue. John proved himself to be not just a physician with a flair for writing powerful essays but also an accomplished poet with a passion for natural history and the meaning of deep time.
Our regular columnist Mike Clifford penned a refreshing and entertaining essay about how to use drama in teaching back in the Fall 2014.
Of course, no issue of GAN would be the same without the remarkable photos of Thomas Jay Oord, also a regular columnist. In this issue we present no fewer that 16 of Tom’s photos as they were originally published, with brief captions, in the Fall of 2012.
We also decided to also include a set of three new photos by Aniko, with a brief comment by Sy. Because of the Winter theme, and the turmoil of these times, we thought it would be forgivable to make this exception to keeping the issue entirely of material from years past.
Our prayer is that readers of these beautiful previous contributions to God and Nature will be inspired to submit their own essays, poetry, and artwork for future issues of the magazine. As of this writing, there are plenty of slots available for the Spring issue, which hopefully will be an exciting time of renewal and re-awakening after the gloom of the previous year. Please send in your essays, poetry, artwork etc. as soon as possible, and before the middle of March. Also please take a look at the Author Guidelines before submitting. Thanks, and enjoy the issue!
Sy Garte Ph.D. Biochemistry, is Editor-in-Chief of God and Nature. He has been a Professor of Public Health and Environmental Health Sciences at New York University, Rutgers University, and the University of Pittsburgh. He was also Associate Director at the Center for Scientific Review at the NIH. He is the author of five books, over 200 scientific papers, and articles in PSCF, God and Nature and The BioLogos Forum. Sy is Vice President of the Washington DC ASA Chapter, and a fellow of the ASA. He is the author of The Works of His Hands: A Scientist's Journey from Atheism to Faith.
Aniko Albert grew up in Budapest, Hungary, and is a graduate of Eötvös Loránd University. A serial migrant, she taught English as a Foreign Language in her hometown, high-school Spanish in Kingston, Jamaica, and English and various subjects in Alameda, California. She is currently the Managing Editor of God and Nature, and Co-Chair of Rockville Help, an emergency assistance charitable organization in Rockville, Maryland.