If we observe carefully the nature we will notice, that here, there, and everywhere, although at first sight it does not seem it, there is a harmony, a correspondence between things, an order.
Every existing thing has a reason, a meaning and a purpose to be, and what for a clueless may seem mere randomness, is nothing more than a complex order created by natural forces that push in one direction.
An example of this is the following: when we throw a ball into the air it automatically returns to the floor. Initially we can believe that such a thing is mere coincidence, randomness, or nonsense, but after it is understood that there are various forces such as gravity or wind that push the ball in opposite directions, we stop believing such things and understand the reason why this happens in that way.
In the same way, the ball was not thrown into the air without any cause or reason, there must have been someone or something that exerted a force on it, pushing it up, this time, a man.
Everything has, therefore, a reason and a purpose, just as each action has a cause and an effect in turn. Randomness is only an appearance, something we can believe when we lack the necessary information, but that is not reality.
Imagine this time that an alien race to the earth, an extraterrestrial, meets an object of our planet, but not a natural one like a tree, but an artificial one, say, a chair. Would this galactic animal know the reason, meaning, or purpose of the chair? Obviously not, because what makes the chair be chair is the idea we have of it, a concept that we have given, because we are its creator. Without this idea of the chair, which is not in the head of such an extraterrestrial, the chair is no more than a cluster of matter.
Of course, this alien will gradually create his own idea of the chair, based on his perception, to try to understand such a strange object, however, it is unlikely that he can really understand what a chair is until he sees a human sitting on it.
When we reject nature, that is, when we don't recognize ourselves as part of it but as a foreigner, we are in a position similar to the previous one. In this case, we don't recognize that each thing, each object, event, action, and any other process that arises in nature, has a meaning, therefore, a reason, and of course, a purpose. What will happen to us then if we do this, being foreigners in our own land, visitors in our house?
We, humans, are not omniscient, much is in fact the knowledge that we lack, therefore, we are usually unable to realize the purpose of each thing. By not knowing, and splitting our actions from ignorance, we obstruct the natural flow of things, and even more, we don't even realize this.
And since I like simplistic examples, be it a clueless throwing a ball or the amazing contact between an alien and a chair, let's review what happens when a man cuts a tree.
Assuming that the purpose of the tree is to give oxygen to living beings, the clueless human approaches and does not see in the tree a source of oxygen, but sees a different purpose, a purpose based on his projections, the purpose of the tree for humans is to create wood. Thus man ceases to be a man and becomes a lumberjack, and the tree ceases to be a source of oxygen and becomes a chair.
The human action guided by his ignorance obstructs the natural flow. What will happen then? Will nature be stopped by the will of a man? What apparently could happen is this, as many naive believe, however, nature does not recognize empty spaces, and sooner or later, if the obstruction remains for a long time (although never permanently), nature will find a way to overcome the obstacle.
The water of the river is not going to stop if we put obstacles. In the first place it will try to destroy them, and if in its first attempt it cannot do it, what will happen is that a new channel will be created and the water will remain flowing. What will never happen is that the water will stop completely.
Now, what mechanisms does nature have to replace the trees that we have cut?
The answer, I would say, is truly incredible.
Nature exerts its will, this time, through us, humans, which when we realize the purpose of the tree, and realize that the idea that we have created from the tree is mere appearance, that is, that the purpose is not found in wood but in oxygen, we try to make up for what we have done. Whether planting more trees or looking for technological alternatives, both that are simply band-aids, or finally, stop obstructing nature.
On the other hand, if nature works through us, we seem to be right to consider that the mere conceptualization we have done to divide ourselves from it (artificial-natural), is more in our head than in reality.
This might seem an apology to determinism or predestination, that would be a misinterpretation of what I have said. My arguments are, in my opinion, concise proof that the human has a decision, and therefore, is free to act.
Freedom, if it takes what I have said, can never be taken out of this equation, and in fact, it is the logical conclusion. To accept that human is unable to plan and predict all natural processes, because he has no knowledge of all of them, stops acting as a God trying to control the world, and begins to focus on self-control, which is, after all, what corresponds to it. The difference is as if it were between communism and free market.
This is the harmony of nature, which is exerted through the confabulation of all, and at all times, as the same united body of which we are a part.
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