Ursula Goodenough's The Sacred Depths Of Nature

‘The sheer popularity’ of stimulating nature or using nature as ad space ‘demands that we acknowledge, even respect, their cultural importance,’ suggests Richtel. Culturally important, yes. But the logical extension of synthetic nature is the irrelevance of ‘true’ nature— the certainty that it’s not even worth looking at. (Louv lines 9-19)

As human beings we’re all affluent to live on this fascinating place called earth. We live everyday normally just as every other human, animal or insect. But we eradicate insects and animals as if they aren’t as important as we are. Nature is being inherently demolished by humans who are oblivious to know that all living things on the earth have a purpose . However, Annie Dillard, well-known for her ambiguous nonfiction books help support the importance of nature and why we shouldn't intrude upon it. For example, Dillard’s excerpt from “The Fixed” about a Polyphemus Moth uses countless rhetorical strategies to construct a compelling message about the peace and beauty of nature, but it also illustrates how easily mankind can destroy it. Therefore, a part of nature is to be naturally

Irma, Harvey, Mexico City earthquake, the 2011 tsunami in japan, Haiti earthquake; nature time and time again smites us with its relentless and unmatched force. Though out the years mankind has battled for survival against the brutal conditions nature has thrown at them and they have created themselves. Continually, without hesitation, they have risen from these disasters to build and grow a new. Yet still, mankind seems to bath in its own naivety at the truth of what nature really is for them. Without haste they push against nature and forget all it has done for them. This idea of respect, however is not so easily forgotten by all. Many writers and poets tell beautiful stories and tales of the power and care of mother nature’s hand extends. One such poem, “The earth is a living thing”, by Lucille Clifton, brilliantly adds to such ideas. The idea that nature poses not only strength but the smarts and heart right along with it. A concept that is not readily shared by many essay writers. Despite these other writers, John Muir follows suit with Clifton in, “A Wind-Storm in the Forest”. Where Muir bashes his reader with the harsh reality of winter, followed by an explanation of the gentle caring hand nature extends to us all. Mother nature has the power to shelter and protect, nurture and grow, but also has the power to demolish and take away everything

Humans are born from and return to earth at death; human beings and nature are bound up each other. Yet, the technological modern world has shaped humans to be oblivious of nature and the ethnocentrism has positioned human beings above all other things. Nature has become resources for people and nothing more than that. David Abram, the author of the Ecology of magic, travels into the wild, traditional land in search of the relation between magic and nature; the meaning nature holds in the traditional cultures. Abram intends to communicate his realization of the magical awareness of the countless nonhuman entities and the necessity of the balance between the human communities and the nature to the readers, hoping the Western technologized

A huge dimension of our wellness and culture as humans, our spirituality, is affected by nature. Nature, in its grandeur, has inspired theological thought in many people. A particular movement in history that exemplified this was Transcendentalism. Two particularly famous transcendentalists were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s renowned essay, “Nature” demonstrates the transcendentalists’ fascination with the natural world and their belief in its divinity. A fantastic quote from “Nature” is “Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years.” In this quote, Emerson refers to nature as “God’s plantation”, which clearly shows his belief, which is shared by many transcendentalists, that nature is holy and connected to God. Henry David Thoreau’s classic book Walden demonstrates similar ideas. Perhaps the most famous quote from the book is “I went to the woods to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” (Thoreau 182) The idea that going to nature allows one to “live deliberately” and understand the “essential facts of life” in essence means that one can develop a true understanding of life through observation and life in nature. The transcendentalists’ beliefs were based in nature. Many others in the

“Nature” and “The Gospel of Nature” …… Nature is something for us all to enjoy. Both Emerson and Burroughs see nature as the most important and effective tool for learning. Being immersed and connecting with the landscape helps restore balance in one’s life.

Our relationship with nature has currently become strictly economic. we tend to don't associate ourselves as a section of nature as a result of we tend to use it for profit. Forests ar abate for the profits of the lumber trade and to form area for placental mammal. Animals that we tend to ar doubtless associated with, that have senses and therefore the ability to socialize ar slaughtered by the billions to feed Associate in Nursing more and more carnivorous population. Resources like oil and food ar all erratically distributed throughout the globe and thus used as a platform for profit. All the whereas the surroundings bears the grunt of our

The other two readings pretty much encourage humanity to what they want with “nature” to improve society as a whole. What is meant by the term to use “nature” is to use “natural” resources such as trees, water, or animals to name a few in ways to be made into something else that is deemed beneficial in some way. The most common example would have to be trees turned into paper products. “Nature” is described as what one’s landscape is, this could be a savanna or a concrete building while “natural” in its purest form is described as wildlife that has been untouched by humanity for as far as the eye can see. The purpose in which it is used is to show if humans have advanced the “nature” or simply left it alone. It is also used to show how humanity has progressed through time through inventions and changes in the landscape. What is at stake for those who are using the terms all depends on whether they look at those terms with a positive or negative

The basic definition of nature is everything that surrounds us and we are a part of it. In addition, Rolston (2012/1998) and Naess (2012/1998) provided a detailed discussion on how society views value for nature. More specifically, from my view nature has intrinsic value because it supports and maintains balance of everything on this planet that exists. Others may believe something different, such as, nature is valuable based on the benefits we can reap from it. Furthermore, Rolston’s discussion on how value is in the eyes of the beholder is a great an example of why our environment is how it is today.

There are plenty of ways one could define ‘nature’, this definition being just one of many. Should ‘nature’ solely refer to anything pristine and untouched by humans? If animals too use up the natural resources that the earth is gifted with, and they too pollute, destroy and kill, then what effect is it that humans have on our natural environment that separates us from other species? In this essay, I will be using the term ‘nature’ in reference to the Oxford dictionary definition, exploring the relationship between humankind and our natural environment within a variety of cultural themes. How I will approach the subject

Nature is everywhere, whether it's outside in the wild, or inside of the human body; it can be seen how it is part of nature that things such as animals and chemicals to be in harmony with each other. For example, when the economy receives a decrease of money, jobs are lost, resulting in unemployment that causes people's lives harder. Since money is an issue, people

“Nature” is an essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and published by James Munroe and Company in 1836. [1] “Nature” has a total of 41 pages. The essay consists of eight parts: Nature, Commodity, Beauty, Language, Discipline, Idealism, Spirit and Prospects. Each part takes a different perspective on the relationship between humans and nature. In this essay, Emerson emphasizes the foundation of transcendentalism, “a religious and philosophical movement that developed during the late 1820s and 30s in the Eastern region of the United States as protest against the general state of spirituality and, in particular, the state of intellectualism.” [2] “Transcendentalism suggests that the divine, or God, suffuses nature, and suggests that reality can be understood by studying nature.” [3] “Transcendentalism is closely related to Unitarianism, the dominant religious movement in Boston at the early nineteenth century. Transcendentalism evolved as an organic consequence of the Unitarian emphasis on free conscience and the value of intellectual reason.” [4] Emerson divides nature into four stages: commodity, beauty, language, and discipline. These define the ways by which humans use nature for their basic needs. The historical significance of “Nature” was that transcendentalism club led the celebration of the American experiment as one of the individualism and self-reliance. [5]

These writing have allowed the opportunity to expand my perceptions on the wild, and the connections I have with environments that surround my daily encounters. I have compares some of these experiences to the readings such as “To build a fire” and “Buckeye”, as both stories convey ideas of survival, sentimental values, and inner connections with nature and learning to understand it better as individuals. This has been a great opportunity to relearn the ideas we conceive about nature and how in some ways, we as people take for granted. It is important to understand these refreshed ideas about nature, to better ourselves as humans and to care for the environments we call home.

Throughout history, humanities encounters with ‘the other’ inhabitants of our planet have provoked many questions and assumptions about the ‘natural’ state of our being and our relationship with the the world in which we live. A reflection from Sahlins on this relationship poses that ‘Nature is to culture as the constituted is to the constituting’ (1976: 209). Whereby nature as it exists in itself is the raw material provided by the hand of God, waiting to be given meaningful shape and content by the mind of man, culture provides a building plan for society with nature as the building materials (ibid:210). The fate of nature once culturalized is its new mode of existence is then bound by the benefits of exploitation by strongest of men.

Nature    Nature is the world around us, except for human-made phenomena. As humans are the only animal species that consciously, powerfully manipulates the environment, we think of ourselves as exalted, as special. We acknowledge that in an objective view we are merely one of many organisms, and that we are not able to survive outside of our natural world of air, earth, water and life. But we tend to be poor leaders in the "hierarchy" of animal life. Despite our greatness, too often we waste, we fight, we breed heedlessly, and are too self-centered and short-sighted. I take note of the increasing awareness of ecology, at least in Western culture, and am heartened. We may still change our weapons of war into tools of peace, and our habits