From my perspective (believing Christian), nature reveals two amazing things: the glory of God, and the horror of the Fall. I see in the sunset and the limitless expanse of the sea that indeed, "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork." It is even more so as I read Hawking's
A Brief History of Time or examine the amazing photos taken by the hubble telescope (
www.apod.nasa,gov/apod/archivepix.html). So yes, I sense the presence of God in nature, and for me it's not just a vague feeling but a reminder of Whom I believe.
But nature is not all as sweet and cute and elegant as the sunset or the koala bear. It is also "red in tooth and claw." It is an arena in which one life survives by taking another life, in which cruelty is as prevalent as beauty. I understand this to be, not an indictment of God's ability to create, but an indictment of what the so-called pinnacle of His creation, mankind, has done to make it foul. Paul agreed: he writes that "the whole creation groans in expectation" of the coming of the One Who can set things right.
I understand your position, John, and would not essay to say "No, you are all wrong." I only say, "I see it differently." I glean what I can of the majesty of God from nature, from the cosmos, but look forward to the day when my faith shall be sight and the One Who is coming will have set it all right again. Nature can make me feel good (or bad: I survived Hurricane Wilma). But "nature" had no answers when I was dying of substance addiction; all nature could do, then, was hint that maybe there was Someone behind it all Who could help. I was an atheist, "a person with no invisible means of support," but the One I now call God "fixed" me anyway. Rescued me from nature, as it were.
Nature is both beautiful and ugly, and it takes something or someone beyond nature to reconcile the two realities in one seamless Truth.
Pax Domini
Art