How Obsession with Immortality Shapes Faith

In another epoch—truly, not that long ago—common knowledge held that the earth was the center of the universe and that fiery furnace we call the sun revolved around us. The earth was the greatest mover and shaker in the cosmos. But, of course, the center would not hold.

Of more recent vintage is the hypothesis that the earth is actually just a great big creature: a mortal organism. The earth might be strong (padded with rock, loaded with magma), but it’s not like one of the gods. Rather, it’s creaturely: fragile, vulnerable. We—humans, ravenous animals—crawl around on the back of this great big creature, scraping at its tender skin. This broad claim is commonly called the Gaia Hypothesis—attributed to the British scientist James Lovelock, who advanced the theory in the 1970s. Whether or not you believe that the earth is self-contained enough to be called an organism, odds are good that you’re among the millions of humans who now share deep concern for its possible futures.