Praying or preying?

I woke up early to pray one morning and saw the silhouette of a praying mantis against the morning sky. I took a picture and posted it on Instagram with the caption "Early in the morning is a great time to pray". A few people responded positively a few took it as a joke. Later I thought to myself that I might have just as easily written "Early in the morning is a great time to prey". After all, to a scientific, reductionist mind the most obvious observation is that this creature is taking advantage of the morning light to prey. What audacity, naivety or delusion, depending on your point of view, to conclude that the mantis was praying. And yet I was.



The Psalmist writes that the "Heavens declare the glory of God!" We can similarly ask whether the Psalmist was expressing audacity, naivety or delusion. A scientific reductionist would rightly conclude that the heavens, by which we can agree means the night's sky, declares something different, something rooted in the laws of physics, something that at its smallest level is almost mundane.



Can a mantis be preying and praying at the same time? Can the night sky be understood both in terms of the fundamental laws of physics and its transcendent quality, not only that it is beautiful but that it in fact glorifies God? Does scientific reductionism rob God of his glory, or even his purpose in creation?