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Your attempts at answering this question interest me, regardless of whether we agree on matters pertaining to sexuality, class, religion, the environment, animal rights, or whatever. Please offer your input as a part of all of us using this forum to honestly and respectfully engage with one another.
To compare notes regarding this question, the most apt term for me currently seems to be ‘eco-spirituality.’ I use the first-person singular to not assume to speak for others.
So... I can empathize with or love another sentient animal, whether human or nonhuman. But I cannot empathize with or love the Earth. 'Eco-spirituality' does not involve rituals of gratitude and reverence, nor any other attempts at communication with Earth, as if it were a deity.
My sense of joyful wonder involves no duality between mind or spirit, on the one hand; and, on the other hand, the physical world. Mind or spirit derives from the material world, that is, the functioning of my brain. The materials of my brain obviously derive from Earth, which, in turn, derives from the universe.
But whether that of contemporaries or posterity, I stand before the judgment of human beings, including myself, not the imagined judgment of a conscious Earth, a conscious universe, or any other deity.
I discovered 'eco-spirituality' as something more fulfilling than secular humanism by way of my involvement with ‘environmentalism.’ The latter term may be a misnomer in that its meaning involves thinking of ecosystems as if they were merely the extensions of organisms (usually humans). But it may make more sense to think of organisms---including humans---as functioning parts of the Earth.
'Eco-spirituality' allows for harmony between the emotional, the intuitive, and the mysterious, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, my rational faculties. It is not other-worldly. Instead, I am focused on how my life is a small and temporary part of the ever-changing present tense.
This conception of reality results in a deeper sense of purpose for my life, not by imagining my motivations to be based on communion with an Earth deity, but by way of applying what may be the scientific principle of how humans and other organisms are part of the functioning of the ecosphere (as opposed to the Earth being an afterthought amid more important human considerations such as the 'economy.')
Humans once thought Earth was the center of the solar system and once thought the sun was the center of the universe. How can we be sure posterity will not have views that differ from ours pertaining to how humans are to coexist with other species of this planet ?
Thanks
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