Gaia defined: Gaia is the name used to refer to the transcendental feminine. Gaia, according to the Greeks, is God's wife. According to the Gaia Hypothesis, Gaia is the earth. I recognize in Gaia, the source of feelings. I postulate that Gaia, to be meaningful, must have an executive which I assign to DNA. This means that DNA is alive and self aware and is capable of strategic planning. To guarantee her survival, Gaia relies mainly on experimentation and competition.

Who are we? The children of our parents, Gaia and God. An experiment. The goal of the experiment is to acquire predictive capability, mainly with regard to earth changes that can negatively affect Gaia's chances of survival.

Where did we come from? God, in the form of the thunderstorm, copulates with Gaia, the earth, which gives life to Gaia and provides her with the ability to create us, as part of her strategy for survival.

Why does God allow disasters to occur? Gaia, in her efforts to survive, relies mainly on experimentation. Experimentation results in many failures for every success.

What are feelings? Where do feelings originate? Why do feelings exist? Gaia requires a method of communication with her children, so that she can evaluate each decision confronting individuals regarding its potential for enhancing or degrading Gaia's survival chances. That is because, they as individuals, lack the experience and judgment to do it. When confronted by a decision, our feelings vary from strong no, through no opinion, to strong yes. The strongest yes will, for most humans occur when confronted by a suitable partner for procreation. The strongest no will occur when evaluating whether to take a step that puts our own lives in jeopardy. Feelings are said to emanate from the heart, but I conclude they emanate from DNA, that is, the cellular level.

What sort of awareness does Gaia have? There is only one kind of awareness, that is the sense of self. The realization that, "I am". However, the senses allow inputs from the physical world that shape awareness to the point that it is hard to imagine awareness without them. None the less it exists, consider Helen Keller and more extreme cases than that. Consider the fetus. Also, God's original awareness, prior to creation. Original Gaia awareness is of the same sort. Humans bring another feature to awareness, objectivity. Humans alone, as far as we know, have the ability to concentrate energy to the level necessary to completely separate the object of awareness and the awareness itself in the subject. This produces advantages and disadvantages. Advantageously, we can compare objects and reach conclusions not available in the absence of objective awareness. Disadvantageously, objectivity creates a separation between observer and observed that can reach the proportions of alienation. Racism is an example.

Does Gaia think? It would be more accurate to say that Gaia dreams. Dreaming is very like thinking and is its subjective equivalent. Does that mean that no brain is required for this activity? Apparently. What evidence is there for that idea? Many living things would appear to have no brain, insects for instance, yet they manage to develop complex societies. This function is usually assigned to instinct which is represented to be something like a program for a computer. If so, it is a very complex program, beyond our capabilities to reproduce and, where does it reside? The only available place would seem to be DNA. This brings us back to the two contending explanations for life. On the one hand we have unaware programs created by chance and natural selection. All beings except man are thought of as robots. This has the flavor of the earth as the center of the universe. On the other hand we have the self aware Gaia, trying to assure her own survival. From this perspective man is but one of her experiments and she, rather than me, is in control.

Why do we exist? This question must be looked at from two perspectives, since we have two parents. Why did God create a universe with life in it? The answer would appear to be that he wished for an observer, so that he provided for the attribute awareness. From the perspective of Gaia, the answer will be much different. Gaia, through experimentation, attempts to improve her survivability. She creates particular sorts of creatures to perform particular functions, thus, plankton to alter the atmosphere according to her wishes. In analyzing our probable functions, and we may have many, we cannot be conclusive, since it may be that our real function continues to await our further development. Certainly we must expect that our function will result from our uniqueness and that that uniqueness is objectivity. We are, apparently, the only creature with this particular feature. Objectivity is particularly useful when comparing similar objects and deciding on where the differences lie. We can compare old weather patterns to new ones, for instance. We do that because we wish to develop predictive capabilities with a view to prolonging our lives by detecting oncoming disaster before it arises thereby allowing us to take defensive action. So, this will be our primary function for Gaia, too. She wishes to survive and she can take advantage of what we discover. Another possible function is atmospheric management. Because of previous alterations to the atmosphere, CO2 has been removed and now finds itself buried in the earth in the form of oil. There may be a long term need that can only be satisfied by returning it to the atmosphere. It is hard to imagine how this could have been accomplished by living things other than the way it is being done. We may be doing the job too rapidly though, judging from the recent announcement of a gasoline/electric automobile.

What is an appropriate human attitude towards Gaia? Both God and Gaia are greater than man, so criticism isn't appropriate. Does Gaia require worship? Since this is the general attitude towards God, perhaps not. Perhaps an attitude of worshipful respect, something like the feeling we have when inside a cathedral, would be more appropriate. God is remote, for most humans, thus the need for Jesus. Gaia is constantly before us and in constant communication with us. Gaia cannot be ignored, except by defining her as insensitive, as we have historically done. This, judging from the environmental problems constantly creeping in towards us from all sides, is probably not an appropriate attitude. Gaia, when defined as nature, seems to produce all emotions in humans from time to time. We hate her when she destroys us. We love her when we observe a creation like the Grand Canyon, which could in no sense be so awe inspiring without her. We admire her when she is the object of scientific investigation. We frequently fear her. We don't seem to respect her as much as we should. This is the result of granulizing her. When we look at individual parts, they don't seem to demand our respect. Taking her as a self aware whole will probably overcome this problem.