Dean's World

Angry Earth

Dean

If I read this New York Times editorial correctly, he's saying that the Earth spirits are angry with us and we'd better watch out.

Or am I misreading the cat?

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rmschoon (www):

That appears to be his line. He's reading quite a lot into the Gaia theory though. I've never heard it used to support such a thing by any serious minded journalist or scientist. To my knowledge, it does not indicate there is an Earth Mother (though I believe there is), or that her 'spirit' is what causes Earthquakes and other forms of natural disaster. Instead, it pushes the theory (quite rightly I think) that the Earth is one large, 'living' being. That events on one hemisphere are deeply connected to events on the other, that one natural 'disaster' will in turn create more until the Earth returns to her usual keel, ie the energy is spent.

It looks like the New York Times is now in the Pagan Goddess business.

12.31.2004 7:38am

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Dave Schuler (mail) (www):

I thought they were opposed to religion in public discourse. I guess animism is okay.

12.31.2004 7:55am

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Dave Schuler (mail) (www):

Chesterton: “When man no longer believes in God he will not believe in nothing; he will believe in anything.”

12.31.2004 7:56am

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IB Bill (mail) (www):

The earth isn't angry at us. The earth is angry at one of us.

Maybe if we can find that person and sacrifice him or her to Mother Earth, we can appease her anger and she'll stop punishing us with earthquakes.

Ok, so who pissed off Mother Earth? Make it easy on yourself. 'Fess up.

12.31.2004 8:10am

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Dean Esmay (www):

I'm pretty sure it was Arnold Harris.

12.31.2004 8:25am

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Paul Burgess (www):

Are we going to offer up Arnold as a living sacrifice?? Can I be the officiating cleric, and wield the sacrificial knife??! :-)

12.31.2004 8:39am

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Beth Donovan (mail) (www):

Whoa - that guy is really superstitious! Year of the Monkey? Year of the fire horse? Gaia?
I'm certainly not impressed with his reasoning.

12.31.2004 10:28am

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urthshu (mail) (www):

We were discussing the Tsunami at my Kung Fu forum and one tool started bringing up overpopulation and how this was kinda good, that it was bound to happen, etc. Not very wude.

Almost the same sort of thing. "Sea gods mad. Make big wave. Wipe out too many people"

12.31.2004 10:49am

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Maggie:

We hear all the time that the US constitution is a living document.......why is it so hard for people to grasp that we have a LIVING PLANET?

Is is too difficult for mankind to accept that we cannot control the forces of this planet...that global warming occurred before man walk the face of the earth...that I live in New York which was a glacier....that Mt. St. Helena's has caused more environmental damage than my SUV??????

Continents shifted before our arrival...the shift continues. WE ARE JUST ALONG FOR THE RIDE!

12.31.2004 11:58am

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Steven Malcolm Anderson (www):

If you think the Earth is mad, wait till the Sky gets mad at the Earth, as She has in the past. A big asteroid could fall upon the Earth. A gamma-ray burst could kill us off. In about a billion years, the Sun is going to get redder and redder and bigger and bigger and burn up the Earth. There are billions and billions of Suns out there, many of them many times bigger than our Sun. Billions and billions of galaxies full of of billions and billions of stars swirling in an infinite Universe....

Happy New Year! (i.e., I hope you enjoy the next revolution of the Earth around the Sun.)

12.31.2004 6:26pm

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M. Scott Eiland (mail):

I'd suggest Michael Moore for the sacrifice, but I don't think there's an active volcano caldera in existence that his fat ass wouldn't end up blocking--leading to the inevitable build up of pressure and a rather disgusting missile being hurled at some innocent population center. Besides, anyone with a background in high school mischief knows how foul-smelling a bag of burning dog crap is.

12.31.2004 8:00pm

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Jeremy Bol (mail) (www):

Michael Moore would plug the Volcano and, consequentially, would cause it to erupt. Besides, he needs to stay out of Washington state. Absolutely correct assumption Scott.

Just curious, has anyone thought of the fact that God might have had a hand in this?

Isn't the place that god hit the worst the same place where child prostitution is okay?

...just a thought.

12.31.2004 10:25pm

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Casey Tompkins (mail) (www):

I was following along fine; "Ok, Gaia theory represents 'living' system. That's a useful mental shortcut."

Then he got into the "deeper purpose" of the earthquake... Sheesh.

What a maroon.

12.31.2004 10:33pm