The Dawn of a Mindful Universe

The sun is the center of the solar system, but that doesn’t mean Earth is insignificant. 

From the time of Aristotle (fourth century BCE) to Nicolaus Copernicus (16th century), most people believed the Earth was the center of the solar system, with the sun, stars and other planets revolving around it. From an astronomical point of view, it was inaccurate. However, it provided humans with a sense of divine meaning, because life on Earth mirrored a larger cosmic plan.

That meaning began to change when Copernicus published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres on his deathbed in 1543. In it, Copernicus correctly argued that the sun was the center of the solar system, with the Earth and other planets revolving around it. Although scientifically accurate, this shift from an Earth-centered solar system to a sun-centered one affected much more than science. Copernicus’s sun-centered model grew into a larger Copernican worldview that changed the way humans related to the natural environment and demoted the significance of Earth in the larger cosmos. Rather than being a part of nature, humans...