The term Gaia is a modern reference to Gaea, the Greek goddess of ancient mythology. It refers to a female divine being that was “worshipped” by ancient cultures as the creator of earth and of all life on earth. Gaia, was not simply a female form of God, she was an entity, somewhat equated to "Eve" the first woman from whom all life proceeded... (Remember Eve, who by eating the fruit was expelled from Eden?) Gaia today is the equivalent of the same mythological goddess who was born herself out of chaos,. She is the one said to have birthed the Titans, Cyclops’ and the Hecatonchires. It is this Gaia, who is said to be our Earth mother... not God, but Gaia, the same goddess of old who was to be worshipped in ancient Greece.
There is a subtle move to modernize the ancient pagan worship of a feminine earthen goddess all around the world. Politicians talk about it, and scientists do too. In fact, it was novelist William Golding (author of Lord of the Flies) who proposed the name Gaia to English scientist James Lovelock. Lovelock has authored several books on the subject including, Gaia, A New Look At Life on Earth, (2000) ; The Ages of Gaia,(2000) and The Revenge of Gaia,(2007) and these books notably promote the Gaia concept we see so prevalent today. More than the traditional pagan worship of inanimate objects like air, fire, water, and rock, the worship of Gaia is the worship of all of Earth and our earth mother... "mother" nature, as well as a move to worship the "feminine" and perhaps even recognize it "in us all."
Since Lovelock's theories, Gaia has quickly become the scientific/political buzzword. It's used to describe (sometimes) the whole ecobiological system of life on earth; this because as goddess she is believed to be an entity with a powerful capacity to regulate herself, everything from climate to the composition of the Earth; and this despite the media cries of “global warming. According to Lovelock, humans are her nervous system, her senses.
Locklock says that it was after man walked on the moon that, “through our eyes, she has for the first time seen her very fair face and in our minds become aware of herself.” Lovelock says too that humanity needs to become conscious too, become aware that we are the world. He adds, “No longer can we merely regret the passing of one of the great whales, or the blue butterfly, nor even the smallpox virus. When we eliminate one of these from Earth, we may have destroyed a part of ourselves, for we also are a part of Gaia.” (Quote from: What Is Gaia? by James Lovelock, www.ecolo.org)
The premise of returning to Gaia appeals to many humans who realize we are in peril here upon the earth, doomed if not to annihilation by modern warfare, at least doomed to the grave. In our very being we see the world around us perishing, and we cannot help but long for someplace, someplace like Eden.
If one is honest, they would soon discover that the very thing humanity lost when Adam and Eve sinned, is the very thing that we humans long for in our heart of hearts. (It's the very thing God gave the world through Jesus Christ his only son, eternal life with a holy righteous God,) This is of course, if one is honest. One can also be decieved or be purely evil and vehemently hate everything having to do with holiness, peace and love, God, the Bible, Jesus and all that goes with it.
Gaia enthusiasts , for example, don’t believe "the God story," nor do they admit to "sin." These New Agers say that to return to our “true state” of being (hmmm... return where?) we must simply raise our consciousness by the act of our own will... (not God's will) and remember who we really are, (Hmmmm, what exactly have we forgotten?) that is, remember that "we are God." There are many ways to do this in new age spirituality, many ways to god, or to godhood... at least that is generally the belief.
On the atheistic and agnostic front Gaia as "a goddess" to be worshiped is somewhat meaningless but it represents for them a pursuit of getting in touch with our true human psyche, or our feelings, connecting our senses and our minds, even connecting to the rest of the world and helping humanity... for they are not stupid and can see with all the pollution and aids and wars and crime, that it is "obviously" in peril. They may even have a solution to offer... but it won't be religious, instead it will probably be military or some politics or law, a political regime.
For the agnostic, Gaia represents developing a love and feelings for all the creatures of earth and even for ourselves. They are apt to adopt some form spiritual consciousness, one where everyone is "okay"... and you're "okay, "as long as I am "okay. " Even Jesus is "okay", at least as long as it is not fundamentally linked to, or defined by, the biblical account of Jesus Christ and who he is because, and they will admit, they simply "do not know" and they do not want to know either because they kinda like the ambiguity of it all. Gaia, is okay too as far as agnoistics are concerned, according to Lovelock, this is because Gaia is scientific... (Homage to Gaia, The Life of an Independent Scientist, by James Lovelock; Pg 417)
Yes, the Goddess is no longer limited to a bygone pagan era, a religion left behind at the fall of Rome. Even Al Gore, ex vice-president of the United States of America who served with Bill Clinton from 1993-2001, has adopted such philosophy into his thinking and makes no mistake about promoting what he calls the Gaia theory.
Gore has a strong political stance in the affirmative on the issue of Gaia and he blames Christians for Gaia's demise. In his book Earth in the Balance-Ecology and the Human Spirit, (2006) Gore faults Christianity for the disappearance of the “goddess” religion. He writes, ‘the last vestige of organized goddess worship was eliminated by Christianity (as well as Islam) as late as the fifteenth century.”
Some things never change you see, Christianized society, then in ancient Rome as now, is somehow viewed as the enemy of those who so animatedly embrace this “Gaia,” or earth-based religion. But Christians did change the world. No kidding. You do remember don't you, how human sacrifices, temple prostitution and other unabashed sexual ceremonies... all part of ancient "Gaia" worship... have ended. And historically it was Peter, Paul and all those other Christians who were killed for no crime other than simply preaching about God and Jesus, that changed the minds and hearts of the pagan Roman world.
It's a pagan revival, one where God is no longer viewed as a male entity or as “Our Father” in heaven who is holy. All around the globe, animists are honored and revered, and there a movement to rediscover, or re-imagine, God into a female mother-god (or goddess) from whom all life is birthed. Women are referred to and refer to themselves as “divas,” and men believe they have a need to “get in touch with their feminine side.” Lesbianism (and male homosexuality) is considered not only "normal" sexual behavior, but vogue. ‘Girls rule, boys drool,” and since boys “drool,” so does the Christian concept of a father figure, or a son of God.
In this “new” way of thinking, the true ancient path walked by those like Adam and Moses and Abraham, those who walked and talked with God, even since the beginning of human history are not only dismissed and disregarded as some kind of myth or nonsense, but despised. Their ancient writings called the Bible and their beliefs about sin and sin's forgiveness is falsely blamed for all the problems in the world. The truth is that these ancient pathways walked by people who knew God are the very paths that lead to the true way home.
The New Age simply exchanges the truth of God for a serpent’s crafty lie, and calls what really is not new at all something “New” It’s not new, it is just the same old deception a green serpent gave to Eve, telling her she would be as God... only slickly repackaged for her children. It's a a false promise, a hope in a false promise of “sustainability,” on a planet that will one perish. It's a lie from that ol serpent himself that humans will find freedom and sustainability of their lives in worshiping the earth or any created things, as "God."
This is not mythical, not a fairytale. It’s common for highly educated men and women, people who study at university, who own and operate businesses, who work in high governmental positions of authority, even people who run for the presidential office to discuss environmental issues using the term “Gaia.” Like Lovelock and Gore, who's books they read, who's ideas they aspire to, there are those who believe that the Earth is alive. They believe it is an organism, one that is in itself a dynamic and intelligent being and one that human beings should bow down to and serve with all their hearts minds and strength. This is a growing religion and more and more people and their politics all over the planet Earth are turning “green."
Yes, "green" and this, just when you thought black and whites could finally get over racial issues. Now-a-days people have started identifying themselves politically as being various shades of green.
There are earth-centered greens or people centered greens with earth centered deeper greens being more politically correct than all the rest. In the political human quest to preserve the most favored species on the planet, it seems they are green with envy over who should be the fittest and most deserving of them all. They want to "save" the earth, and to make the world a perfect home and to do so they will control population and birth defects by killing, cut health care costs with physician assisted suicide and euthanasia, even let humans starve to death over politics and give animals their human rights.
If you know anything about being politically "green," you have do doubt heard of Gaia, and you need to realize that Gaia worship is at the heart of all things "green" in political arenas today.
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