“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The universe is much bigger than our prophets said,
grander, more subtle, more elegant?’”
Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
I was raised in a Protestant family in central Kansas. I grew up with an understanding of the created order based on the traditional interpretation of the Genesis creation myth. I wasn’t expected to believe that the entire creation process was literally completed in a matter of days; I was free to question that possibility. However, as a child it never occurred to me to question the priority placed on the creation of man. The Christian doctrine of Imago Dei (created in the image of God) is foundational to the teaching and ethos of western Christianity. I was taught that the human, homo sapiens, specifically the male human, is the most elevated earthly expression of something we called God. I lived and shaped my personal ethic under the umbrella of that arrogant, destructive claim. Fortunately, that structure of belief is collapsing, and truth is being revealed through scientific study, geometric description, and interdisciplinary application of the profound discoveries of quantum theory, which describes nature at the sub-atomic level.
I want to show you something….
The Eastern Bracken Fern thrives along walking paths of the Adirondack region of upstate New York. This deciduous plant grows from long, creeping rhizomes deep underground, which protect it from being threatened by fire and drought. Its long, triangular fronds grow almost horizontally, forming dense, waist-high growth.
To the naked eye this simple fern frond is easily recognizable. It is but one small part of the larger, more complex plant. As the frond is magnified it becomes clear that each smaller portion is made up of an array of increasingly smaller, self-similar patterns.
As the magnification increases, more detail reveals evidence of the self-similar pattern continuing to repeat itself with increasing beauty and complexity.
Our observation and appreciation for natural patterns have been changed forever by the work of Polish-born mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot (1924-2010.) Mandelbrot was drawn to the visual aspect of mathematics, describing geometry as “the place where math meets the eye.” In 1980 he formulated a geometric equation that mathematically describes the repeated natural pattern of self-similarity.
Fractal patterns of self-similarity and increasing complexity are abundant in the natural world.
This is a Romanesco broccoli plant, which produces an edible flower bud rich in fiber, and Vitamins C and K.
Looking more closely, we see the fabulous spiral arrangement of the self-similar pattern. Each small portion is similar to the larger whole.
Increased magnification reveals smaller and smaller self-similar portions of the whole.
This color-enhanced fractal pattern, generated by visually plotting points of the Mandelbrot equation through advanced computer technology, mimics the natural pattern seen in the Romanesco broccoli.
Amazing! Fractals are everywhere! We live in a collage of pattern, symmetry, self-similarity, and scale.
What does this fractal pattern of self-similarity have to say about Imago Dei? What does this natural phenomena of self-similarity and increasing complexity suggest about being created in the image of something else? What wonderful place do we occupy, individually and collectively, in these ever-expanding natural patterns?
I have very personal experience with self-similarity. I was born an identical twin. As a child, I did not experience my own identity as unique. I was often mistaken for someone else, called by someone else’s name, or referred to as one of “the girls.” I saw the face of someone else when I looked in the mirror. I remember asking, “If we are created in the image of God and I look just like my sister, which one of us is God?”
I am choosing now to live constantly amazed - daring to look at one frond of the bracken fern or one bud of Romanesco broccoli and ask, “Which one of us is God?”