Life
This gets majorly beyond philosophical, spiritual, and a few other things. If you are tired, very cynical/logical/skeptic, or extremely christian and opposed to anything beyond "God created the world cuz the bible said so" you prolly shouldn't read...
It's fairly obvious that Earth is the only planet we've explored in-depth that can support life at this time. It's the only planet we scientifically know of that can support life, period. But what is needed for life? Obviously, the raw materials, the environment needed for cells to grow, and for those cells to form larger more complex organisms. But, being a spiritual person (and pagan/buddhist/satanist/every other religion I've bastardized to make my own...) I believe that everything that lives--humans, animals, trees, plants-- everything, has a soul. Or spirit, call it what you will. (Multiples and walk-ins can argue here that they have more than one, which is true, but in this, that's not relevant.) I believe that life could not exist if we didn't have souls. Sure, our physical bodies would still have everything they needed to continue living in the biological sense--but we'd have no reason to live. No dreams, no thoughts. No passions, feelings. We'd be shells.
Here's where my thoughts wander even deeper into my spirituality. If these two things are needed for life--body, and soul, is it too much to suggest that Earth supplies both? The physical Earth supplies everything needed for physical life, for our bodies. But for our souls, could it be that the Earth too, has a spirit? A massive, sentient mother spirit, that supplies the lifeforce for each and every soul for each and every living being on the Planet? It isn't too far fetched. After all, on a cosmic, universal level, the Earth could be considered a parody of say, a human, on a larger scale. There could be hundreds of thousands of unexplored planets with spirits. On the cosmic level, they're just beings with spirits, on our level, they're mother spirits, gaias, gods.
When the physical body dies, the spirit can no longer reside in it. It leaves, to wander in the astral/ether/spirit world, either to stay there for awhile, or find another body, a new body, a new life. If mankind continues to slowly butcher the earth, what will happen? There wont be any fleeing to a colony on the moon, or escaping on a spacehsip. We might be able to simulate a physical environment to support us, but our Mother spirit will be gone. Not gone, but no longer attached to us in that sense.
Which brings up another interesting thought. Will The Earth let us destroy her? Could it be that as we reach the crucial moment, when mankind's destructiveness is on the line between that which time might heal, and that which will kill the physical Earth--will the spiritual earth intervene? Cut off the source for the lifeforce of our souls? Or, rather than destroy mankind spiritually...
If the Earth is a sentient being with a soul like any creature living on it, then the Earth could, in theory, manipulate her physical self. There have been an enormous number of natural disasters in the past year or so. Earthquakes, mudslides, hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis. All of which have wiped out life in the thousands. Is Earth trying to send us a message? Are we on the line, even as we speak? Is this Earth's attempt to protect herself from her matricidal children?
Whoo. Deep stuff there. At any rate, my apolgies if I jumped back and forth betwee "it" and "she" a lot when referring to the Earth. Just hard to keep track, this is a new way of thinking to me, so to speak. And there's no sexism involved, just "Mother Earth" is the term stuck in my brain. There yeh go.
It's fairly obvious that Earth is the only planet we've explored in-depth that can support life at this time. It's the only planet we scientifically know of that can support life, period. But what is needed for life? Obviously, the raw materials, the environment needed for cells to grow, and for those cells to form larger more complex organisms. But, being a spiritual person (and pagan/buddhist/satanist/every other religion I've bastardized to make my own...) I believe that everything that lives--humans, animals, trees, plants-- everything, has a soul. Or spirit, call it what you will. (Multiples and walk-ins can argue here that they have more than one, which is true, but in this, that's not relevant.) I believe that life could not exist if we didn't have souls. Sure, our physical bodies would still have everything they needed to continue living in the biological sense--but we'd have no reason to live. No dreams, no thoughts. No passions, feelings. We'd be shells.
Here's where my thoughts wander even deeper into my spirituality. If these two things are needed for life--body, and soul, is it too much to suggest that Earth supplies both? The physical Earth supplies everything needed for physical life, for our bodies. But for our souls, could it be that the Earth too, has a spirit? A massive, sentient mother spirit, that supplies the lifeforce for each and every soul for each and every living being on the Planet? It isn't too far fetched. After all, on a cosmic, universal level, the Earth could be considered a parody of say, a human, on a larger scale. There could be hundreds of thousands of unexplored planets with spirits. On the cosmic level, they're just beings with spirits, on our level, they're mother spirits, gaias, gods.
When the physical body dies, the spirit can no longer reside in it. It leaves, to wander in the astral/ether/spirit world, either to stay there for awhile, or find another body, a new body, a new life. If mankind continues to slowly butcher the earth, what will happen? There wont be any fleeing to a colony on the moon, or escaping on a spacehsip. We might be able to simulate a physical environment to support us, but our Mother spirit will be gone. Not gone, but no longer attached to us in that sense.
Which brings up another interesting thought. Will The Earth let us destroy her? Could it be that as we reach the crucial moment, when mankind's destructiveness is on the line between that which time might heal, and that which will kill the physical Earth--will the spiritual earth intervene? Cut off the source for the lifeforce of our souls? Or, rather than destroy mankind spiritually...
If the Earth is a sentient being with a soul like any creature living on it, then the Earth could, in theory, manipulate her physical self. There have been an enormous number of natural disasters in the past year or so. Earthquakes, mudslides, hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis. All of which have wiped out life in the thousands. Is Earth trying to send us a message? Are we on the line, even as we speak? Is this Earth's attempt to protect herself from her matricidal children?
Whoo. Deep stuff there. At any rate, my apolgies if I jumped back and forth betwee "it" and "she" a lot when referring to the Earth. Just hard to keep track, this is a new way of thinking to me, so to speak. And there's no sexism involved, just "Mother Earth" is the term stuck in my brain. There yeh go.