Evolution AND religions teach us that we were created from the Earth, through one method or another. When we die our bodies are buried and we return to our source. To some people our connection is simply in our joint consumption of the same resources, but I don't think this is reasonable.

Not to sound excessively 'spiritual', I believe our connection with the Earth is just as strong as the connections we make with the ones we love or our ancestors whom are responsible for us existing in the first place. 'Mother nature' was a phrase that was coined for a reason, and it is very common for people to say 'Mother Earth'. To me this meaning is exactly what it sounds like, Earth is our 'parent' just as much as our blood parents are.

I do believe the assumption that damaging our planet is also damaging ourselves, and that is a very reasonable conclusion to draw. But we are capable of healing our planet just as much as we are capable of damaging it. I'd say the sooner we stop treating the Earth as an object to be stepped on to reach where we want the better off we all will be. Soon people will learn that the Earth is a living and breathing entity of life to be respected and treated as an equal, just like ALL life.

On the topic of cancer specifically: I am not a doctor, and in no way claim that anything I say on this topic or any other is anything but my own beliefs. That being said, I personally believe that our mind and spirit have 'bodies', just like our physical one. And they need to be kept active and healthy, just like our physical one, otherwise they will age, deteriorate, and die. I believe many ailments people suffer from in life, cancer being one of them, are caused by spiritual or mental wounds that manifest themselves physically. A mild example of this is hypochondriacs that honestly 'feel' the pain they believe they are experiencing. If your mind can hurt you physically, what would be stopping your spirit from doing the same? (I believe this idea can also work in any possible combination of directions, including a lack of attention to our physical beings resulting in mental or spiritual wounds.)

Happy Thanksgiving to you as well, and everyone reading this. A wonderful day to be discussing the appreciation of life, though it would be just as wonderful any other day as well. ^_^

it may be that we, physical humanity and planet earth, are from the same source,
each with an individual destiny yet interdependent

Hi Jai, Happy thanksgiving. Physicaly we are made from the same stuff as our earth and spiritualy we are connected to all there is in the universe. Yes the earth is being compromised by the way we humanity treat it and yes that effects us humanity on many levels.

Not only is mineral depletion effecting our health but the digging up of minerals from one place and depositing it elswhere effects the balance of earths very survival. That includes Gold, diamonds and oil to mention a few and especialy oil for these things have been mined for many decades and shipped all over the globe. Just like our body needs balance by having certain minerals in certain places (like calcium mainly in the bones and teeth) so does our planet.

What happens if you take calcium and deposit it elswhere in the body like kidneys for instance? As any kidney stone sufferer will tell you this is excrutiatingly painful for that is no place for that specific mineral. The body becomes unbalanced and disease happens. The same goes for our planet for by digging up minerals irrespective of what they are unbalances the earths magnetic field. I think this also has a lot to do with the crazy weather patterns we get these days.

What we need to do is put mother earth on a strictly organic diet and maybe to replace some of those minerals where they belong. Of course this is only my own insight and nothing more than a pipe dream but maybe a few hundred years from today when science wakesw up who knows?