Blog #11 Spiritual Ecology 

     I am an Episcopalian but was raised in a way that my parents didn't force religion on me. Yeah, I had to go to church on Sundays but that was about the extent of my religiousness, which I think has allowed me to view other ideologies objectively. Spiritual ecology emphasizes the relationship between humans and nature and holds that they should be a partnership, not dualistic. They are but a part of a bigger whole, not two separate organisms competing for resources. With studies from fossiles and soil I can see how the Gaia hypothesis has gained support in the scientific community. From our records, we found that the earth has never frozen or boiled, showing that there has never been an instance without life on earth. We also have examples of self-perpetuation like plants creating oxygen for us to use, then going back to carbon dioxide for the plants to reuse and others in the readings. Although I don't fully support the hypothesis, I can see that it does have a certain amount of validity and needs to be further explored.
    I agree with the idea that we live in a hyper-masculinized society, modernity and enlightenment are commonly argued as the start but I think it began when the Catholic church demonized pagan religions, who worshiped goddesses, and the eparation that there is "one true God", not multiple deities as the higher power. Recent political regimes have furthered the idea of the white man being superior throughout the world and Imperialism helped to spread this. It will be a challenge to get ourselves out of this hyper-masculinized society but change is possible. KCCO