Put Humans Back In "Nature"

Recent signers:
Alonzo Jones D​.​O. and 18 others have signed recently.

The Issue

The best healers do not treat symptoms. They discover and address root causes.

If we see the wanton destruction of the world around us as a sickness, we must discover and address its root cause.

Why would our species destroy its source of food, water, air? Why would it destroy its own home?

This is a complex issue and no one answer will provide the ultimate solution.

However, it cannot help our cause that we have written our species out of the very definition of Nature.

According to the Oxford Languages, which is the first result served by Google when searching "nature definition", Nature is defined as (bold added for emphasis):

1. the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.

Dictionary.com defines it thusly:

1. the material world, especially as surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activities.

2. the natural world as it exists without human beings or civilization

And Cambridge Dictionary:

1. all the animals, plants, rocks, etc. in the world and all the features, forces, and processes that happen or exist independently of people, such as the weather, the sea, mountains, the production of young animals or plants, and growth.

Read those again:

"...as opposed to humans or human creations."

"...existing independently of human activities."

"...without human beings or civilization."

"...that happen or exist independently of people."

We are being taught to view Nature as separate from ourselves. We are being taught – through the definition itself – that Nature is separate from humans, and humans separate from Nature.

We believe that writing the human species out of the definition of Nature is a root cause of our species' sad and unfortunate treatment of the Earth.

Help us address and treat this root cause by signing the petition and showing the various dictionary organizations around the globe that humans are and always will be a part of Nature.

When we return to Nature, we heal ourselves...and the Earth.

Learn more at TerrainTheory.net.

avatar of the starter
Benjamin HardyPetition StarterCo-host of The Terrain Theory Podcast. Big fan of "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. Find me barefoot in the sun.

196

Recent signers:
Alonzo Jones D​.​O. and 18 others have signed recently.

The Issue

The best healers do not treat symptoms. They discover and address root causes.

If we see the wanton destruction of the world around us as a sickness, we must discover and address its root cause.

Why would our species destroy its source of food, water, air? Why would it destroy its own home?

This is a complex issue and no one answer will provide the ultimate solution.

However, it cannot help our cause that we have written our species out of the very definition of Nature.

According to the Oxford Languages, which is the first result served by Google when searching "nature definition", Nature is defined as (bold added for emphasis):

1. the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.

Dictionary.com defines it thusly:

1. the material world, especially as surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activities.

2. the natural world as it exists without human beings or civilization

And Cambridge Dictionary:

1. all the animals, plants, rocks, etc. in the world and all the features, forces, and processes that happen or exist independently of people, such as the weather, the sea, mountains, the production of young animals or plants, and growth.

Read those again:

"...as opposed to humans or human creations."

"...existing independently of human activities."

"...without human beings or civilization."

"...that happen or exist independently of people."

We are being taught to view Nature as separate from ourselves. We are being taught – through the definition itself – that Nature is separate from humans, and humans separate from Nature.

We believe that writing the human species out of the definition of Nature is a root cause of our species' sad and unfortunate treatment of the Earth.

Help us address and treat this root cause by signing the petition and showing the various dictionary organizations around the globe that humans are and always will be a part of Nature.

When we return to Nature, we heal ourselves...and the Earth.

Learn more at TerrainTheory.net.

avatar of the starter
Benjamin HardyPetition StarterCo-host of The Terrain Theory Podcast. Big fan of "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. Find me barefoot in the sun.

The Decision Makers

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Oxford languages

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Petition created on July 4, 2022