I’m back from the Grand Tetons, which is my favorite place on earth. Here are a few photos. More soon on my Facebook page.
Whilst I was gone, I was unable to post (except about the ESCR ruling from the Denver Airport), or personally monitor the comments, a few of which–you know who you are–got a bit out of hand. Let’s play nice.
In any event, here are a few photos. I hope you like them.
This lone gray wolf was only 150 or so yards away, when we saw him early in the morning a few miles inside of Yellowstone. He’d been feeding on a dead elk in a stream nearby. Magnificent animal. (I have more photos of the wolf and the dead elk.)
That dusk, as we left the park, we watched in stunned amazement as a giant grizzly, that had stolen the elk, decided to do away with the wolf that had stayed nearby harassing the bear, not wanting to lose its meal ticket. The bear suddenly charged. The wolf sprang away, running for its life, the bear hot on its tale–literally–only about five feet behind. It was too dark to take photos and happened too fast anyway. But it was so close you didn’t need binoculars. The safety volunteer there said he’d never seen anything like it other than through a high powered telescope. After about a 20 second dash, during which our hearts were in our throats, the bear pulled up. There is no justice or mercy in the natural world–those are qualities distinctive of human societies.
Moon rising over Yellowstone Lake:
The Tetons are breathtaking. This shot was at about midday.
Debra and I took long hikes by beautiful lakes. I was quite taken by the reflection of this huge boulder–left by glaciers from the massive global warming that ended the last ice age:
The most dramatic sunset I have ever seen. Taken from Jenny Lake Lodge, Grand Teton National Park, in a slight rain.
August 29th, 2010 | 12:26 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Vince Humphreys, Ed Warmoth. Ed Warmoth said: RT @CO2HOG: SHS: The Grand Tetons are Proof of God http://bit.ly/aIgINh #tcot [...]
August 29th, 2010 | 9:39 am
I’ve never heard of the Grand Tetons as being “Proof of God”.
Could anyone please elaborate this?
As I have been looking for “proof of God” (really, any “proof” of a supernatural realm) for decades, yet never found any, this may be a critical piece of evidence I have overlooked.
I’ve certainly investigated quantum chromodynamics and quantum electrodynamics as accounting for the Big Bang which formed out present universe, and the according microwave background radiation that still persists in its aftermath. Particle physicists witness the interconversion of matter and energy in particle accelerators on a daily basis, and we know that even a vacuum (space boundary devoid of particle matter) still has energy. With the presence of a “large” amount of particle matter in the universe from the Big Bang and the separation of the 4 fundamental forces – not statistically impossible albeit not likely – gravity allowed the accretion of large bodies of matter – we call these stars. When stars collapse inward on themselves, due to their own gravity as a property of matter/energy, they result in a supernovae explosion – we see these even today in our telescopes. With such supernovae, elements are fused into heavier elements (nuclear fusion) under the intense pressure and heat energy of such explosions. When these heavier elements, which have gravity, slowly begin to attract each other and accumulate, planets, such as Earth, are formed. This can take billions of years (human construct for unit of time). Some of these planets, like Earth, consist of different layers, composed of different proportions of elements. These layers slide past and over each other. In some cases, this phenomenon is plate tectonics. As the Earth is made of mobile geological layers, fault lines can emerge. San Franciscans should be well familiar with these. Sometimes these fault lines result in the quick formation (over a few million years) of mountains when the faults are pushed together. (all this should have been presented to everyone in Earth Science, typically presented in 7th or 8th grade in American science curriculum)
It’s my understanding this is what accounts for the Grand Tetons – not God.
Therefore, how does these fault-block mountains provide “proof of God”?
So, I’m skeptical the claim that the Grand Tetons are “Proof of God” is nothing more than an empty, unsupported emotion claim completely devoid of data and evidence for little more than a shared psychological delusion which is common to the species.
I’m skeptical that photographs, therefore, constitute “proof of God”. Using such for evidence, I recall seeing photographs (I presume none of which were fakes) of concentration camps, bomb blast aftermath, flood victims, babies with anencephaly, starving children in Africa, drunk driver car wrecks, and victims of assault and battery. Are these “proof of God”?
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
August 29th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Exactly right. It is an empty, unsupported claim, that is an old colloquialism that means they are awesomely beautiful. And all that matters is that they move me deeply in my soul or synapses, and that they refresh my spirit and add joy to my life. In other words, some things are beyond science. If you can’t grasp that, you have a very stunted life.
August 29th, 2010 | 11:17 am
Did the wolf die? :(
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
August 29th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Nope, it barely escaped.
August 29th, 2010 | 11:46 am
Stunning shots. You gear list would be much appreciated.
Oh, and you might appreciate a homes of mine – http://www.moosepeterson.com/blog/
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
August 29th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Deeptoad: Thanks. I used a Canon Rebel (SLR) with a Tamron 18-270 lens. Wow. Your pal is obviously a real pro!
August 29th, 2010 | 12:08 pm
Maybe it’s how the name translates from French that inspired Wesley’s remark. I’ve had my share of amorous experience, but I’ve never heard anyone wax THAT poetically on the subject.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
August 29th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
History Writer: Are you 15?
August 29th, 2010 | 2:53 pm
Oh, good! That’s terrific. :)
August 29th, 2010 | 5:30 pm
Wesley, welcome back! It sounds like you enjoyed yourself, glad to here it!
Perhaps your assertion, that the Grand Tetons, are proof for the existence of God, is not not up there, with, say, Aquinas’s cosmological argument, but I like it. Maybe you could develop it, a little, and call it the “argument from particular aesthetic experience, for the existence of God”?
August 29th, 2010 | 6:48 pm
Wesley: judging from your caption I might have asked the same question of you. Lighten up.
August 30th, 2010 | 11:39 am
How does one measure a “stunted life”?
Is it a symptom of achondroplasia? I’m confident I do not have that disorder.
HistoryWriter:
…I thought “Tetons” came from a Native American word. Was I lied to by the Department of the Interior to present a more wholesome characterization? If so, when did this lie propagate – during the “family values” era? I should not have assumed; I should have investigated.
August 30th, 2010 | 12:05 pm
It is impossible to put into words what that country does for me and my wife. She took me to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone for our honeymoon and it immediately became my favorite place on earth. It has been too many years since our last visit, but we are waiting to take our children till they are all old enough to appreciate it.
August 31st, 2010 | 4:23 pm
There is no God and Dawkins is his prophet.
September 1st, 2010 | 10:10 am
Markus-LOL
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