Artificially Natural

A question was raised to me by my father after speaking about our human endeavors of space colonization and travel. If nature is everything natural and everything created by man is artificial, then any tree planted or animal raised is artificial. So logic dictates. In that case, what of terraforming? Say that a humanity comes to possess a power able to transform an entire planet into a lush, green paradise, such as the Genesis device created in the movie Star Trek II. We discussed in class the value of nature and whether or not it is inherently valuable or only seemingly so due to human opinion. If it is the latter, terraforming would be seen as a good thing, especially if it made the planet more hospitable to supporting human life; however, if the prior is true, then the alterations, whether they be to a barren planet or otherwise, would be seen as destroying the natural setting. So the destruction by creation is therefore artificial and since artificiality is not nature and nature holds intrinsic value, the false nature must not. Is this true? What of seeding a planet to grow on its own with time? Would the first step nullify the value of all that which comes forth from the initial? Perhaps to humanity, but what of the creatures who come to value that artificial nature as we value our own? Imagine now that the nature which we deem valuable is in fact created by a group of beings capable of doing such planet seeding. Does that mean that all which we find beauty and loveliness in our natural world is really a lie? Something fabricated by intelligent hands to become something mimicking the creations of the universe's original? Perhaps. Perhaps we simply are all artificial in a means. We are all a product of human reproduction which was only made possible by our race's overall survival which was done through our own intervention against extinction. In our quest for survival, are we not in fact relying on alterations done by our own or forefathers' hands? Every vine cut to clear a path, every seed planted, and every stone turned can be deemed artificially changed. In order to survive, we must alter. We are then a product of our alterations and must then be artificial.