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January 15 2008
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Best Nature Photographs for 2007

Many of us living in urban areas do not get to experience the wonder of natural beauty that can be so inspiring (not to mention good for your lifespan). But thanks to the efforts of photographers who take photos like these, nature is available for all of us to see, up close and personal.

These amazing images are from the Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards, and, if any of you will be in the Washington D.C. area, are on display at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum through April 27.

Please take a break to enjoy some of nature’s most stunning examples of beauty.
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Community Comments ( 33 )
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BeyondOrganic
[ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on December 28, 2007 ]
13 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
WOW!!!  Only God can create such absolute beauty!
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Reesacat
[ Joined on 01/07 ]  [ Posted on December 28, 2007]
11 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Amen!
Mercola
  
God bless the U.S.
[ Joined on 01/08 ]  [ Posted on January 17, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Amen and amen!

  
  
samurai
[ Joined on 04/07 ] [ Posted on December 28, 2007 ]
9 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
Breathtaking.  Thanks so much.
 [ Reply ]
  
  
KathieJamisonCote
[ Joined on 04/07 ] [ Posted on December 29, 2007 ]
6 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
We live on such an incredible planet with amazing and wonderful creatures all around us (well if our ways don't cause them all to go extinct) and we still don't get it........

.......so many of us just don't get how to live peacefully with ALL Nature.

Read the World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle, PhD
 [ Reply ]
  
  
Russ Bianchi
[ Joined on 09/06 ] [ Posted on December 28, 2007 ]
6 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
These are truly magnificent photo shots, and instill a true sense of wonder...

Uncle Russ
 [ Reply ]
  
  
EQ
[ Joined on 03/07 ] [ Posted on December 31, 2007 ]
5 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
Inspiring!  I can't wait to get back out into the wilderness.  Thanks!
 [ Reply ]
  
  
mmc88121
[ Joined on 11/06 ] [ Posted on December 28, 2007 ]
5 Points        
   
 
Moderator User
Beautiful pictures, thank you for this link.

Mary
 [ Reply ]
  
  
shane3000
[ Joined on 09/07 ] [ Posted on January 15, 2008 ]
4 Points        
   
 
Novice User

Interesting God comments.  I'm a professional wildlife photographer, and I've seen a lot of both beauty and brutality in nature.  So I'm wondering, do you give God credit for the terrible things that occur in nature, too, or just those that are beautiful to your eye.  For example, do you give God thanks for creating a creature that bites the kneecaps off another creature, then slurps it up using its cut-off legs as straws?

Your garden where you grow your organic kale is full of brutal characters also, I guess, created by God?

Insects falls into two main groupings: peaceful plant-eaters and savage bug-eaters. Those with a taste for violence include a fly that lays its egg on the head of a caterpillar so the larva can eat the caterpillar alive, spiders that inject enzymes that dissolve their prey and then suck them down like a buggy slushy, and wasps that fly up and down stems looking for caterpillars that they can dismember and feed to their young.  Do you think these savage bug-eaters (that I can take a visually stunning photograph of) are also glorious creations of God?

Not to be overly provocative here, just curious.

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
ChooseLife
[ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on January 15, 2008]
2 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Perhaps God-the Intelligent Creator-wanted our human spirits, endowed with free will rather than only instincts of lower flora & fauna, to distinguish what is brutal behavior and what is not, so that in our horror and revulsion for the brutal, we would tend to choose better ways, although some clearly think that the brutal is the example to follow.

  
  
4Hand Healthy
[ Joined on 06/07 ] [ Posted on December 31, 2007 ]
3 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User
With images like these,who could ever doubt intelligent design?
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
God bless the U.S.
[ Joined on 01/08 ]  [ Posted on January 17, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Amen!

It does not take much effort to demonstrate that evolution is not science but religion. Science, of course, involves observation, using one or more of our five senses to gain knowledge about the world, and to be able to repeat the observations. Naturally, one can only observe what exists in the present. It is an easy task to understand that no scientist was present over the suggested millions of years to witness the supposed evolutionary progression of life from the simple to the complex. No living scientist was there to observe the first life forming in some primeval sea. No living scientist was there to observe the big bang that is supposed to have occurred 10 or 20 billion years ago, nor the supposed formation of the earth 4.5 billion years ago (or even 10,000 years ago!). No scientist was there—no human witness was there to see these events occurring. They certainly cannot be repeated today. All the evidence a scientist has exists only in the present. All the fossils, the living animals and plants, the world, the universe—in fact, everything—exists now, in the present. The average person (including most students) is not taught that scientists have only the present and cannot deal directly with the past. Evolution is a belief system about the past based on the words of men who were not there, but who are trying to explain how all the evidence of the present (fossils, animals, and plants, etc.) originated.

Webster’s Dictionary defines religion as follows: “Cause,principle or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.”Surely, this is an apt description of evolution. Evolution is a belief system—a religion!

It only takes common sense to understand that one does not dig up an “age of the dinosaurs” supposedly existing 70–200 million years ago.One digs up dead dinosaurs that exist now, not millions of years ago.

Fossil bones do not come with labels telling you how old they are.

That is why scientific theories change continuously.They change conclusions

  
  
alaskabruce
[ Joined on 01/07 ] [ Posted on January 20, 2008 ]
1 Points        
   
 
Novice User

You 'god' commenters are hilarious!  Proof of evolution? PROVE GOD!  The invisible only exists in your minds.  A beautiful earth does not prove a creator. Where is the eveidence that even Jesus existed?  Many people who were on earth at the time he supposedly was are mentioned in historical accounts.  Why did nobody write about Jesus except the writers of the bible? Religion is a drug for those who need a belief in something to focus their lives.  Evolution is totally honest and logical- survival of the fittest, natural selection of whatever works best.  Religion (specifically christianity) is both illogical and dishonest.  God is all-knowing all-powerful all-loving, but somehow allows the earth and it's population to go to hell in a handbasket.  And he needs lots of money, too.  Somehow he can't manage money, so he has the churchs collect it for him.   Even his followers can't agree on who he is or what he accepts-  Trinity? Maybe.  Women preachers? Maybe.  Gay people? Maybe.  Pre-marital sex? Maybe. Tobbacco use? Maybe.  Child abuse? Maybe.

Evolution, whether you call it theory or fact, is so straight forward, so clear.  There aren't 50 different branches of evolutionists.  Christians are scared of evolution because they KNOW, deep down, that if they accepted the facts it would destroy their mythical faith system.   Evolutionists have no fear of religion, because faith and fact are separate paths, and belief in an invisible man in the sky is no threat to fossils that actually exist.

Finally,  quoting scriptures proves nothing except that you know how to read a book and copy from it.

I'm sure I've stepped on a lot of toes here, but science and truth don't always tread lightly.   They are a bright light under which we can examine anything.  Religion is a dark shroud of mystery and faith and it falters badly when examined closely.

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Feesh
[ Joined on 01/08 ]  [ Posted on January 24, 2008]
       
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Yup, another hilarious "God" commenter :).  

Those pictures were incredibly inspiring.  God truly is an amazing Creator.  While I don't want to debate or get into science and all that jazz, I just want to state that I believe in God and believe that He is real.  While we can't see the wind, I cannot deny it's existence.  I personally experience God's presence in my life and not a blog, not a scientist, not a theory can change it.  For those that don't believe there is a God, ask Him to show Himself to you, if He doesn't exist, then you don't have anything to worry about :).

Much Love!

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:18-20

  
  
NLB7
[ Joined on 01/08 ] [ Posted on January 16, 2008 ]
1 Points        
   
 
Novice User

Wow,,, evolution is an amazing thing.  That's why it has taken millions of years, unlike what some think only a few thousand...

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
John P J
[ Joined on 01/08 ]  [ Posted on January 17, 2008]
       
   
Novice User
  Mercola

That's comical, really. Think about it and do your research. Evolution is JUST an Theory.

Look up the Neandertal Man. He was the name given to bones found in 1856 in Germany’s Neander Valley (‘tal’, or ‘thal’ in old German spelling). The name Neander was a pseudonym of the 17th-century minister Joachim Neumann, the Greek translation of his name (‘new man’). A major PBS-TV series on evolution1 depicted Neandertal Man as only half human and not very intelligent, one who lived a very inferior life compared to the alleged first humans, the Cro-Magnon people. Some scientists today believe he was ‘lacking the language skills, foresight, creativity, and other cognitive abilities of modern humans’. Neandertal Man is considered to be either a link leading to modern man or a dead end in human evolution from the supposed ape-like ancestor.

The evolutionary assumptions concerning Neandertal Man began early this century. The first Neandertal was reconstructed as a ‘missing link’ by famous paleontologist Marcellin Boule (1861–1942).3 He was called Homo neanderthalensis, implying a primitive evolutionary link to modern man, Homo sapiens. Forty-four years later, a reanalysis of Boule’s work showed his extreme evolutionary bias in the reconstruction of Neandertal Man. After the reanalysis, some scientists stated that if you dressed him up, gave him a shave and bath, and sent him into society, he would attract no more attention than some of the subway’s other denizens (see box below). Neandertal Man was then reclassified as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, just a particular type of modern man.It is interesting that, just as with Piltdown Man, Neandertal’s uplifted status was hailed as a ‘great moment in science’ in which errors are eventually corrected. But the clues to Neandertal Man’s human affinity were obvious at the time of Boule’s reconstruction, just as it should have been obvious that Piltdown Man was a fraud.

I'm just sayin'...

  
  
thetruthshallsetufree
[ Joined on 01/08 ] [ Posted on January 17, 2008 ]
       
   
 
Novice User

GOD is such an awesome God. Only he could create such breathtaking beauty. God never said that everything would be beautiful and lovely & life would be easy, and their would be no "brutality" in nature. On the contrary the Bible tells us that this life will be full of trials and suffering. That is is where people get confused. They always bring up pain, suffering, terrible things, and evil & ask "did God create this also?" The answer is, God created everything. It is man that has the choice to be evil or good. It is a choice! This life is very short & temporary. We are promised a beautiful paradise in heaven where there will be no pain suffering and every tear will be wiped from our eyes.

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
John P J
[ Joined on 01/08 ]  [ Posted on January 17, 2008]
       
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Until After the Fall in the Garden of Eden did everything go down-hill.

It's man's fault not GOD's.

Genesis chapter 2 says

Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

"...HE WAS A MURDERER FROM THE BEGINNING, AND HAS NOT STOOD IN THE TRUTH BECAUSE THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM. WHEN HE TELLS A LIE HE SPEAKS FROM HIS VERY NATURE, FOR HE IS A LIAR AND THE FATHER OF LIES."

JOHN 8:44

Now that verse settles it. Lying comes from Satan. The truth comes from GOD.

Our tears being wiped away is in Revelation chapter 21

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said,“Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me,“Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

And He said to me,“It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things,and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly,unbelieving,abominable