I don’t understand what you are saying.The whole Ecosystem works as a Machine if the top or bottom is missing it won’t work. Everything is tied in together working as a whole.
Thank you for bringing up the concept of ecosystems and the analogy of a machine.
A machine works like a system in equilibrium. It may be thought of as existing on its own, but is part of a larger system, the universe, which supplies it with the energy to work, the materials which provide the various components that constitute its structure and the laws that govern how it works. It also needs someone to make and operate it.
One might think that the machine exists as itself. Alternatively, it may be thought of as a collection of fabricated components brought together. Its possible to subdivide those components into smaller things such as atoms, and even the subatomic. We know it to be an expression of the physical laws of the universe, formed and maintained as it is for a purpose held by its Maker.
This isn’t a science forum, but I’m going to assert that various findings such as what happens in the slit experiment and the fact that hot water in a cup cools down suggest that the machine does exist as more than an intellectual projection of our minds.
Whatever. But, we do know that we exists as one being, is ourselves. As persons, we see, think, feel, move things about. We are a system, like the machine, connected to, integrated within, related to what is outside of us. What we have are all sorts of abilities, which allow for a very special relationship with one another, with the world and with God. Animals perceive, feel and act on instinct. These living systems, be they e coli or the largest whale, exist as themselves and are made up of complex component systems, which are themselves composed of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and so on.
The pond ecosystem is pretty much stable within the larger ecosystem that is the earth, within the cosmos. To exist and maintain its integrity, its components are required to relate in the manner that they do. It is just as necessary that they be a part of the bigger whole that is the universe. Animals and plants, the sun, water, air and earth come together as a temporal whole which is in a state of flux.
We are part of that system, but with the capacity to actually cause things to happen. Atoms are what they are as forms of being, doing what they do. Living forms incorporate that matter to be what they are. We are like all of that, and more. We have been given a responsibility to tend to the garden.
The way things work is from the top down. We, as a body-mind unity move matter, because we are spirit and because we are matter - one. We don’t create the matter of which we are constituted and we do not give ourselves being with its nature of knowing and doing. We are definitely not created by matter, but by God who brings it and all this into existence.
Today’s reading is about a mustard seed. The image appears over and over. God plants seeds. Things don’t come fully formed. The ecosystem is like a flower, having come to bloom, whole from small origins.
