Like most words, perhaps the word "nature" has more than one meaning?
For example, lying might not be in a person's "nature."
Or, God created "nature" and we call it the "environment."
I'm right....naturally.
Yes, you are right, naturally
Environment is a word we applied after the fact, on observation of our surroundings.
What I was suggesting here ---
again, just as food for thought -- is that we can take advantage of the language as it evolved.
Why do we say today, "Clara has a very helpful nature and a peaceful temperament" ?
We do not say Clara = help. We say Clara's nature! So Clara is standing apart from her nature. Clara's hair / eyes are not Clara. Clara's mind is not Clara. Clara's nature is intrinsic TO Clara but not Clara herself. Otherwise we would have said Clara-nature without the apostrophe s
This is the microcosmic truth.
Similarly, the macrocosm -- I am only suggesting that it is possibly NATURE of the Divine (Brahman in my mind) to constantly spin out galaxies and star dust out of its intrinsic infinite potential ?
It is nature of the Divine to let molecules form out of its primordial substance ?
Just as it is natural for our hair to grow or blood to clot?
We are not our hair.
We did not intentionally make it grow. [ It is different that we intentionally cut it -- that is not in the nature ]
a)A long braid of hair is not created ex-nihilo. It is a natural part of us. (this is for ex-nihilo theists )
b)A long braid of hair cannot grow by itself stand-alone if not on an organism. (this is for it-just-happened atheists)
So, what is proposed as eternal to the divine according to this above, is
a) Its eternal conscious existence
b) Its primordial content - that is constantly in-flux with the 3 properties of material nature fluctuation up and down => causing , creating, balancing and destroying.
Athiests say it is just b) and Ex-nihilo-thiests say it is just a) but Hinduism suggests b) is intrinsic to a) and hence equally eternal and beginning-less.