Is nature our new god? | Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, Tim Palmer, Melanie Challenger
43Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, Tim Palmer and Melanie Challenger discuss whether re-embracing Mother Earth as a divine god can undermine human values by bringing back superstition and fate.
00:00 Intro
00:28 Tim Palmer
03:56 Melanie Challenger
08:11 Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes
Watch the full debate at https://iai.tv/video/the-oldest-gods?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=description
From Greece’s Gaia to the Hindu Prithvi, many cultures have seen the Earth as a divine being. Christianity and Western culture however removed god from nature deriding such outlooks as 'pagan'. The earth was recast as a resource for humans, to be conquered, settled and tamed. Now it seems the tides may be changing again. Rivers and rainforests are being given legal rights and some philosophers go further arguing that the planets of the solar system should too. Nature it would seem is the new god.
Psychedelic philosopher Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, internationally-renowned climate scientist Tim Palmer, and author-broadcaster-podcaster Melanie Challenger test each other's beliefs about nature and god. Hosted by philosopher Hilary Lawson
#TheologyOfNature #GodsOfNature #DestructingMotherEarth
Tim Palmer is an internationally renowned meteorologist and Professor at the University of Oxford. He works on the tough, crucial problems of uncertainty in our weather and climate, drawing on his background in fundamental physics to do so.
Peter Sjöstedt-H is a philosopher of mind, specialising in the thought of Whitehead and Nietzsche and in panpsychism and altered states of sentience. Peter Sjöstedt-H is currently a research fellow and associate lecturer at The University of Exeter, following six years of lecturing Philosophy in London.
Melanie Challenger is a researcher on the history of humanity and the natural world and on environmental philosophy. Her latest book, How to Be Animal: a new history of what it means to be human was published by Canongate in 2021.
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