God and Nature 2025 #3
letter from the editors |
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By Sy Garte and Anikó Albert
Five years ago, in the summer of 2020, we put out a special issue of God and Nature on the theme of COVID-19. It was a time of desperation and fear. The pandemic had ravaged cities across the world and was starting to advance in many rural areas. Lockdowns and the ongoing closure of schools, churches, and restaurants were beginning to take their tolls. Rumors of various vaccines were spreading, but there was no clear sign when they would be ready or how effective they would be. Older people, especially those with additional risk factors (like your editor-in-chief), lived in a world of anxiety, high caution, and constant prayer. This photo, by Dr. Michael Pyle (one of the contributors to the special issue) was taken during morning rounds in the ICU annex created by modifying the surgical recovery room. and is titled "Covid combat: All hands on deck".
Five years ago, in the summer of 2020, we put out a special issue of God and Nature on the theme of COVID-19. It was a time of desperation and fear. The pandemic had ravaged cities across the world and was starting to advance in many rural areas. Lockdowns and the ongoing closure of schools, churches, and restaurants were beginning to take their tolls. Rumors of various vaccines were spreading, but there was no clear sign when they would be ready or how effective they would be. Older people, especially those with additional risk factors (like your editor-in-chief), lived in a world of anxiety, high caution, and constant prayer. This photo, by Dr. Michael Pyle (one of the contributors to the special issue) was taken during morning rounds in the ICU annex created by modifying the surgical recovery room. and is titled "Covid combat: All hands on deck".
Five years later, life is (mostly) back to normal, and the makeshift cloth masks of those first scary and confused months have been repurposed to happier projects or are hiding at the bottom of a drawer. But it is important that we don’t forget those difficult times. COVID is not gone, and new epidemics of old or new diseases could be around the corner. We thought it might be useful to reprint that pandemic issue, at its fifth anniversary, to remind us of what we all went through, and how even in such terrible times, prayer and faith in God as well as in science remain our strongest sources of hope and courage. The sheer heroism of so many doctors, nurses, researchers, and many others that brought us through the worst of the worst must not be forgotten, and we believe that reading these words by our members who had stories to tell then might be useful during the current times of stress.
To the content from the Summer issue, we have added four more pieces about the pandemic, two from the Spring 2020 issue, which was released only a month or so after it all started, and two from 2021. The current edition features both essays and shorter reflections from an all-star cast of writers including Mike Clifford, Gareth Jones, Lucas Mix, Jonathan Warner, Oscar Gonzalez, Kristine Johnson, Michael Pyle, Paul Arveson, Brent Peterson, Effat Zeidan, Dana Oleskiewicz, Paul Carr, Angie Cornwell, E. Janet Warren, and Mario Anthony Russo. Each piece is presented without alteration from original, with the date of first publication indicated.
In other publishing news, our editor-in-chief, Sy Garte and our regular columnist Cheryl Grey Bostrom have both had books published in August, by the same publisher (Tyndale House). You can see blurbs of these books in the previous (2025 #2) issue of God and Nature, and you can order Beyond Evolution: How New Discoveries in the Science of Life Point to God (non- fiction) here and What the River Keeps (fiction) here.
As always, comments are welcome (through the Submit page). In the next issue (2025 #4), we will be back with all new essays, poetry, and artwork.
Sy Garte, Ph.D. Biochemistry, is Editor-in-Chief of God and Nature, and the author of “The Works of His Hands: A Scientist's Journey from Atheism to Faith”, (Kregel), “Science and Faith in Harmony: Contemplations on a Distilled Doxology" (Kregel) and "Beyond Evolution: How New Discoveries in the Science of Life Point to God" (Tyndale). He has been a Professor of Public Health and Environmental Health Sciences at three universities and was an Associate Director at the Center for Scientific Review at the NIH. He blogs at "Sy's Substack", and his website is sygarte.com. Sy is Vice President of the Washington DC ASA Chapter, and a fellow of the ASA.
Anikó 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 Chair of Rockville Help, an emergency assistance charitable organization in Rockville, Maryland.
Five years later, life is (mostly) back to normal, and the makeshift cloth masks of those first scary and confused months have been repurposed to happier projects or are hiding at the bottom of a drawer. But it is important that we don’t forget those difficult times. COVID is not gone, and new epidemics of old or new diseases could be around the corner. We thought it might be useful to reprint that pandemic issue, at its fifth anniversary, to remind us of what we all went through, and how even in such terrible times, prayer and faith in God as well as in science remain our strongest sources of hope and courage. The sheer heroism of so many doctors, nurses, researchers, and many others that brought us through the worst of the worst must not be forgotten, and we believe that reading these words by our members who had stories to tell then might be useful during the current times of stress.
To the content from the Summer issue, we have added four more pieces about the pandemic, two from the Spring 2020 issue, which was released only a month or so after it all started, and two from 2021. The current edition features both essays and shorter reflections from an all-star cast of writers including Mike Clifford, Gareth Jones, Lucas Mix, Jonathan Warner, Oscar Gonzalez, Kristine Johnson, Michael Pyle, Paul Arveson, Brent Peterson, Effat Zeidan, Dana Oleskiewicz, Paul Carr, Angie Cornwell, E. Janet Warren, and Mario Anthony Russo. Each piece is presented without alteration from original, with the date of first publication indicated.
In other publishing news, our editor-in-chief, Sy Garte and our regular columnist Cheryl Grey Bostrom have both had books published in August, by the same publisher (Tyndale House). You can see blurbs of these books in the previous (2025 #2) issue of God and Nature, and you can order Beyond Evolution: How New Discoveries in the Science of Life Point to God (non- fiction) here and What the River Keeps (fiction) here.
As always, comments are welcome (through the Submit page). In the next issue (2025 #4), we will be back with all new essays, poetry, and artwork.
Sy Garte, Ph.D. Biochemistry, is Editor-in-Chief of God and Nature, and the author of “The Works of His Hands: A Scientist's Journey from Atheism to Faith”, (Kregel), “Science and Faith in Harmony: Contemplations on a Distilled Doxology" (Kregel) and "Beyond Evolution: How New Discoveries in the Science of Life Point to God" (Tyndale). He has been a Professor of Public Health and Environmental Health Sciences at three universities and was an Associate Director at the Center for Scientific Review at the NIH. He blogs at "Sy's Substack", and his website is sygarte.com. Sy is Vice President of the Washington DC ASA Chapter, and a fellow of the ASA.
Anikó 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 Chair of Rockville Help, an emergency assistance charitable organization in Rockville, Maryland.