Zell opens his essay by addressing the basic question of how to privilege any one religious viewpoint (such as his own Neo-Paganism) over all the others, given the problem of determining objective truth in the subjective reality experienced by human beings. All things being equal, he admits, all sincerely held religious convictions are “true” to their adherents, as human consciousness constructs the subjective reality that we exist within, and therefore conflicting conceptualizations of divinity are not easily dismissed. However, he notes, these beliefs do not necessarily describe consensus reality beyond a particular individual or tribe (let alone the objective nature of the universe) any more than the hallucinations of a drug addict or the delusions of a paranoid schizophrenic, which seem “true” to the person experiencing them. Therefore, different belief systems can be evaluated by taking an approach based on the scientific method, and he suggests using the following four criteria:
- To what extent does the religion favor blind faith over a scientific understanding of the nature of things?
- To what extent does the religion favor deference to tradition and hierarchical authority over freedom of thought, creative insight, and intellectual honesty?
- To what extent is the religion willing to incorporate scientific discoveries (from a variety of academic disciplines) into its myths and teachings?
- To what extent do advances in scientific knowledge substantiate or refute the religion’s myths and teachings?
Clearly, certain fundamentalist Christian sects that publicly dispute scientific theories and set themselves in opposition to the entire enterprise of science would fall on one extreme of this spectrum. But even the most progressive Protestant denominations would still come off as hidebound, if not anti-science, in this light. In contrast, Zell positions the Neo-Pagan movement of the 20th century as having embraced science and in doing so found validation for many of the beliefs of the ancient nature-religions, especially their supposed veneration of a primordial Earth-Mother goddess.
From there, Zell explicates his theory that the Planet Earth is, in fact, a single unified living organism and all its varied lifeforms are analogous to cells, tissues, or organs in a body. To illustrate this, he outlines the basic process of cell division, noting how a single “mother” cell divides itself in two, then continues subdividing, passing the original protoplasm through each successive generation. No matter how many trillions of cells result from this process or how much the cells specialize into distinct organs or tissues, we still consider them collectively to make up one organism. Many cells, he notes, can continue to live independently after leaving the body, such as blood cells in a hospital or tissue cultures in a laboratory (a topic explored in depth in Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks). And by extension, children, in carrying on the protoplasmic legacy of their parents, can be considered to be a continuation of the life of that originating cell. Thus, by tracing the process of evolution back to its beginnings, Zell shows that all life on Earth, descended from a single-celled common ancestor, forms one continuously existing lifeform—the only lifeform (that we know of) to live in this solar system.
Zell identifies this living organism as “Gaea,” named for the primordial Earth-Mother goddess of Greek mythology, probably the most well-documented of the ancient mythological systems. Each individual plant and animal on Earth therefore acts as a single cell in the body of Gaea—coming into existence, serving its purpose, then dying off to be replaced by the next generation, just like the blood cells in your circulatory system. While individual blood cells may exist for a limited time, blood itself is ever-present. In the same way, individual plants and animals (existing temporarily) form larger, continuous systems, making the planet’s various biomes analogous to the organs in a body. And rather than existing “on” the Earth, like lichen clinging to a rock, life is but one integral component of Gaea’s total biology. The layers of rock surrounding its hot iron core serve as a foundation much as our skeletons do for us. The planet’s atmosphere and the waters of its oceans, lakes, and rivers are likewise vital parts of Gaea’s body. The totality of the planet is the living organism, not just the parts that are “alive.” Zell also posits that this organism’s food—its external source of energy—is, of course, sunlight. Through photosynthesis and related processes, the materials of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere are converted for use in sustaining the biosphere.
What follows from this revelation, Zell makes clear, is the imperative to avoid major disruptions to the world’s ecosphere, something that the human race has spectacularly failed to do for at least 70,000 years. Hunting animals to extinction, introducing invasive species with no natural predators, and widespread deforestation are all just as dangerous and foolhardy as trying to rearrange your internal organs. Thus, Gaean Spirituality aligns naturally with the environmentalist movement.
Zell then speculates on what the true purpose of Homo sapiens might be, given our destructive tendencies. Do we serve some positive function in Gaea’s lifecycle or are we merely a cancer best eradicated? His solution is to position the human race as the active component of the planet’s reproductive system, seeing us rather like sperm cells that leave the body, find a suitable receptacle, and create offspring—not human offspring in this case but Gaean offspring by terraforming other worlds, where life can then continue after the Earth dies of old age. This does seem to make sense, as we’ve already done what no other animal has ever managed to do: leave the planet and travel elsewhere. Granted, astronauts have only made it as far as the moon, but plans are currently being made for human exploration of Mars in the near future. Since it’s only been a little over a century since we mastered powered flight, I don’t think this is a bad rate of progress. And this idea goes a long way to explain the human race’s characteristic wanderlust.
To conclude his essay, Zell gives his thoughts on the nature of divinity as a concept, briefly outlining an evolution of religion in the process. Zell defines divinity as the ultimate form of self-actualization for any living being, and as human beings came to live in larger and larger groups, he argues, they developed a “collective divinity” that became personified as a tribal god or goddess. The characteristics of this divine figure reflected the values of the tribe, thus a patriarchal culture would adopt a masculine god that operated within some kind of hierarchical structure, whereas a matriarchal culture would choose a goddess instead and perhaps stress more communal concepts. Over time, as weaker tribes were assimilated by more dominant ones, the various gods and goddesses fell into a sort of cosmic pecking order. Sometimes an assimilated goddess would be married off to the conqueror’s god, taking a subordinate position in a newly imagined pantheon. Sometimes the weaker tribe’s gods would be suppressed, allowing for the eventual development of monotheism. But, Zell asserts, no matter how exalted any such deity might become (such as the widely worshiped Yahweh), it will never transcend its origins as a tribal god representing the values of its creators. Gaea, on the other hand, emerges as a divinity of a different order of magnitude.
Zell theorizes that Gaea, the living organism, is developing a consciousness as she matures. Eventually, she will “awaken” and then operate on a whole new level as an “emergent deity” through her own process of self-actualization. He takes the development of manned spaceflight as a sign that this maturity is rapidly approaching, since achieving reproductive capability is a sign of maturity among other living organisms. This planetary consciousness, he believes, is currently “slumbering” but can be sensed intuitively by human beings (and perhaps other sentient creatures), leading us to correctly conceptualize her even in ancient times as “Mother Earth” or “Mother Nature.”
A revised version of Zell’s essay can be found on the Church of All Worlds website.
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