Lives on Earth

3.8 Billion Years

  • Plants as Aliens

    Plants are so familiar to us that we don’t notice or appreciate some of their characteristics. We see them mostly according to how we use them—for food and beauty. For a fresher perspective, I’ll describe plants as strangers from another… Continue reading

  • Symbiosis, or How We All Get Along

    Many people like to exclaim that being alive is mainly about competition of one kind or another. For all living things, they say, survival is a contest. And in the 19th century, for those making their way in the capitalist… Continue reading

  • How To Make a Religion

    In The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, published in 1967, Peter Berger describes religion as a type of knowledge that we make out of our own lives. He explains three stages: briefly, we pour ourselves out… Continue reading

  • Meditation and Science: Two Views of Life

    At the Spiritual Naturalism Society website, Jay Forest’s fine article on “Introduction to Insight Meditation,” also known as mindfulness or Vipassana meditation, opens with several helpful definitions by teachers and writers of what this meditation is about. The explanations include,… Continue reading

  • Walking Up the Ramp

    Life is a ramp. We—all things alive—are walking along ramps that slope upwards at various angles, angles that change during our lifetimes. The climb may be easy or arduous. The ramp begins at birth and ends at death. The angle… Continue reading

  • Is the Universe Alive?

    Is the universe alive? What about the earth? Or nature as a whole? My belief is that the universe along with earth’s mountains, oceans and atmosphere are not alive but that we feel they are living because we respond to… Continue reading

  • People Are Different

    One perception of mine that has strengthened over the years is how different people are. When I was young, I thought of these differences mostly because of the difficulties they presented—how to talk to this girl, how to respond to… Continue reading