Mother Dearest

SUMMARY: "Most of us sense that the Earth is more than a sphere of rock with a thin layer of air, ocean, and life covering the surface. We feel that we belong here, as if this planet were indeed our home. Long ago, the Greeks, thinking this way, gave to the Earth the name of Gaia."--James Lovelock, THE AGES OF GAIA.

     Earth. Many believe it to be the sole location of life in the Universe. It used to be thought of as the center of creation. Ancient civilizations worshipped its very existence, even creating the Earth Goddess, Gaia, to represent all of Earths eternal glory. But Gaia is not the typical portrayal of sweet Mother Nature. She is the omnipotent Mother Goddess, and a real dura mater to boot. According to Greek Mythology, she was responsible for her husband Uranus' demise, and did this by pressuring her son Kronos to destroy him. She was the first Goddess to rise out of Khaos (the time before creation), and sleeps until she can return the world to its void.
     That is not to say, however, that Gaia was viewed as an evil goddess. On the contrary, she was revered and spanned more cultures than almost any other deity.


Stautes of Gaia such as this one were very common around the ancient world. Image from the Elohim Centre

     Followers of the Gaia Hypothesis believe that Earth is indeed a living, breathing organism, as can be seen in this quote:

      " All the entities [of the Earth] interact as a whole,
like organelles in a cell. Only when [the scientist]
separates them or observes them individually for a short
time, do they assume different properties including life and
death. Long term, in congress, the entities appear to sense
and communicate, thereby sustaining the optimum environment
for their cell's life. (Cohen, HOW NATURE WORKS, p. 78.)

Biologist and author Lewis Thomas (THE LIVES OF A CELL) suggests that the atmosphere is the Earth cell's membrane wall as it regulates precise amounts of energy capture, storage, and release.

Life means holding out against equilibrium--banking against entropy by using membranes. The Earth has its own membrane, the atmosphere, to constrain the effects of the sun. In Lovelock's words,

The biota--the sum of all living things, including
plants, animals, and micro-organisms--not only profoundly
affects the Earth's environment, but acts to maintain and
enhance life on the planet. (GAIA: A NEW LOOK AT LIFE) "

ANALYSIS:  We are learning that Gaia may be resilient, but we also see that we are changing nature, permanently. Increasingly, acts of nature are not "acts of God," but of humanity--or, we might say, in-humanity. Nature is no longer an independent and autonomous force, and it's no longer true that "everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." We are, in fact, doing much about it; for instance, recent storms which have ripped into the Caribbean and southeastern U.S. coasts, and across Asian islands and continents, are increasing in intensity as a direct result of the oceans' warming. As the band of warm water in which such storms incubate widens and deepens, the size of the storms increases, and the power of the wind increases geometrically. It is probably not coincidence but rather human intervention which has brought us, in the last 15 years many of the most destructive tropical storms ever recorded.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Do you believe that Earth is a living creature? Do you believe that it deserves to be treated like one, and do you believe we currently are?

CITATION:

Beversluis, Joel. "The Gaia Hypothesis." A SourceBook for Earth's Community of Religion. 1995: 212-214. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 04 Mar 2012.