Meta Finis: Semitic Nature

The Hebrew, or more accurately, the Semitic or Near Eastern, concept of nature is that it is an artifact of an architect. The analogy is that an agent external to matter forms it, names it, and directs it. The architect could be compared to the CEO of a corporation, a top down, hierarchical system of control.

The architect in this hierarchical system can enter into contracts with humans, usually called covenants, that by carrots and sticks motivate adherents of this system to behave according to laws handed down from the CEO which when obeyed they can expect progeny and land.

The architect here is assumed to be the master of nature. The adherents of this philosophy likewise consider themselves masters of nature rather than products of nature. They often think that to dominate nature rather than to cooperate with it is the way.

As such, their kind bows down to the architect's laws. This analogy has caused more misery than the other understandings of nature but still persists in the west and its near eastern precedents.