Laws of Nature
Oversoul is characterized as loving Nature and establishing a relationship to things that are natural. Since Nature is taken as intrinsically valuable, and because relating appropriately to Nature presupposes its preservation and protection, Nature in general and environmental issues in particular, are important to those who comprise the Oversoul Associative Religion. This is evidenced by Emerson's essay "Nature" which expands on the beauty of Nature and the need for every person to protect the environment, which has been received as a gift from the Creator, to be used but never abused.
"I hold that when we take a view of the Universe, in it's parts general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. It is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe that there is --- a fabricator of all things. (Thomas Jefferson)
LAWS OF NATURE: William Blackstone's Commentaries on Laws, published in 1765, became a source of Common Law and one of the most quoted sources by our Founding Fathers. The United States Supreme Court and the American court system used these definition for over 160 years to settle disputes and examine procedures. Blackstone explains Natural Law as:
"Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being. And consequently as man depends absolutely upon his maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his maker's will. This will of his maker is called the Law of Nature.""Upon these two foundations, the Laws of Nature and the Laws of Revelation (Laws of God) depends all human laws, that is to say that no human laws should be suffered to contradict these."
John Locke adds:
"The Laws of Nature stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislatures as well as others. The rule that they make for man's actions must be conformable to the Law of Nature --- i.e., to the will of God."
John Quincy Adams declared:
"From the days of the Declaration --- the American people were bound by the Laws of God, which they all --- acknowledged as the rules of their conduct."
The United States Supreme Court stated:
"These inherent rights have never been more happily expressed than in the Declaration of Independence, 'we hold these truths to be self-evident' --- 'that all men are endowed' --- not by edicts of emperors or decrees of parliament, or acts of Congress, but 'by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and to secure these' --- not grant them but secure them --- 'governments are instituted among men."
The Laws of Nature are eternal, immutable laws of good and evil as exacted by God. That means they never change. The Laws of Nature, dictated by God, course superior to any other. They are binding over all the globe, all the countries and in all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to these.
All people concede the existence of universal, inalienable Laws of Nature that govern the physical universe. Further, just as there are physical Laws of Nature, so there are ethical Laws of Nature that have been recognized as international law. Specifically, a "higher" moral law superseded absolute obedience to the state as the highest legal authority. The recognition of supremacy on Nature's Law reached a climax in the Nuremberg judgments against the Nazi regime. Currently military and political leaders from Bosnia are on trial for the same crimes against humanity. These court actions are largely based upon the postulate that the individual may have a legal obligation to disregard immoral superior orders in the name of a "higher" moral law.
NATURE'S GOD is an all-consuming force, a non-corporeal Spirit who has left His image, the imprint of His creative power, upon all creation. Religious traditions tend to refer to God in the male gender. Nature's God is intangible and therefore neither male nor female. It is not that God is "both" --- God is neither --- simply due to the fact that to be male or female presumes a body. Since it is our desire to use quotes, writings, poems, essays, philosophies, and opinions in their original format, the reader should understand that when we use the term God, Nature's God, the Creator, or other terms, such as Heavenly Father, we do so, in reverence to the original author.
"The whisper of His Spirit is in the wind on the water. His love of renewal is in the changing of the leaves. His appreciation of simple beauty is embellished on a rose. His power is emblazoned on the sun rising in the morning. His steadfastness is witnessed by the stars fixed in their night watches. His gentleness is seen by the light of the moon as it follows its nightly path. The complexity and practicality of God's creative thoughts are seen in the diversity and energy of insects. Nature's God is movement and color, sound and light. It is passion, love, joy and sadness. That which is, all this is, is what the term Nature and Nature's God is all about." (Ramtha)
Nature is the garment of God: It is that in which He appears and wherein He is veiled, so that we can look upon Him in His vestured aspect; but it is not the body of God, it is the symbol and manifestation of the divine presence. It is that which He took upon Himself for the purpose of appearing.
"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." (Romans 1:20)
This is a statement of a certain definite correspondence between the visible and the invisible worlds, between heavenly and earthly things, between the divine and the human. The lower are in a sense the images of the higher, the temporal of the eternal. All the attributes of the being of God, all that is real and abiding as contrasted with what is ephemeral and fleeting may be inferred from what we know of the phenomenal universe, including human nature itself. These things that are seen are the symbols, the partial and impermanent presentments of that which is from everlasting to everlasting and constitutes divine perfection.
"The knowledge of Nature is the Revelation of God" (Ethan Allen)
While God reveals Himself in Nature, God's kingdom resides in the SOUL of an individual, being invisible, mystic, spiritual, and internal. It is God's unseen Spirit that reveals itself to the soul, illuminating the heart of a man with wisdom, understanding, counsel, power, knowledge, and righteousness. With God, these attributes are essential aspects of His spirit, co-equal, co-eternal, and coordinated. The whole of God's essence includes them all and pervades them all. These eternal attributes of God are communicable to men, who appropriate them equally according to their willingness and capacity to exhibit them.
Given that God's image is branded on the essence of Nature, it is the contention of Oversoul Ministries that the beginning of the path to know God is in Nature. Hence, it is essential that every person who values the Creator be guaranteed the right to a time when he or she may seek illumination in the shade of God's canopy, or in the light of the glory of a sunset, or in the wonder of the jeweled sky. Therefore, the Oversoul Doctrine of Shalom Shabbath holds that regardless of the congregational day of worship or worships one elects to associate himself or herself with, in accordance with the authority asserted by his or her personal preference, each member of the Oversoul Associative Religion is guaranteed the absolute right to a personal Shalom Shabbath, i.e., a sabbatical, a time when the associate believer, preferably in Nature, takes time out to be alone with his or her own thoughts and the Creator, with the objective of pursuing and confirming a personal rest, this is, a time out from work to seek rest from conflict, whether physical, emotional, familial, political, or spiritual.
Since the Creator has revealed Himself in Nature, and this revelation is non-verbal and universal, the direct interaction with Nature by those of the Oversoul is essentially religious, as it pertains to the most fundamental revelation of the Creator's existence, Nature. This is part of the essential medium of communication between Creator and creature, which sustains, enlivens, and inspires one to new levels of communion and insight between themselves and Nature's God.
