Our Mother, Nature.

In Merchant's "Science and Worldviews" the true voice of Mother Nature comes out. The way Merchant compares the Earth to a human body and the way we function shines a whole new light on her [Earth] and in it she looks as beautiful as ever. Never before have I actually thought of the world in quite the way Merchant explains it. " A commonly used analogy was that of the female's reproductive and nurturing capacity and of mother earth's ability to give birth to stones and metals with "her" womb through marriage with the sun" (pg. 42). This truely portrays earth as a human. Giving her the ability to reproduce just as humans do, and to be wed just as humans do. It makes you think of eart as something more than what we just walk on and use for our own selfish gain. In this metaphor Merchant shows that earth is just as important, if not more important, than a human being is, and without "her" life as we know it wouldn't exist. It's much like how although woman are often taken for granted, if they no longer existed, then soon nobody would exist, because we are the ones who are able to reproduce, and keep this world going. It's difficult to grasp this concept for many people, that mother nature is valuable and not a renewable resource that can just be replaced. When you have been taught something your whole life it is difficult to change your way of thinking, but Merchant helps you to do just that. We as humans take for granted just what it means to be a human. In another paragraph Merchant wrote, "Nature must be "bound into service" and made a "slave," put "in constraint," and "molded" by the mechanical arts" (pg. 45). How true is that? Nature has been enslaved to humans. We are forever taking nature for granted and taking and taking, but never giving anything in return. We are abusing the priviledges that have been give to us. Nature should not be enslaved to us. We should all realize that being able to use Nature's resources is not a right, but instead see it as a priviledge which can, and will be taken away if we keep treating it the way that we have been. We use nature only to try to improve our lives and yet all we are doing is destroying nature as we know it by over using what she has to offer.

When I think of us using Mother Nature to get ahead, with the result of us hurting her I think of the BP oil spill off the Gulf Coast. We were using her waters as a way of transportation, yet because we are careless she got hurt. Tons of oil was leaked into what Merchant would call Mother Earth's "mucus," "blood," "saliva" and "sweat" (pg. 42) yet another part of her was contaminated by the carelessness of humans. Until humans realize that we are not special and the world doesn't revolve around us, Nature will continue to be the victim.

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