I start this blog in response to a simple assertion I discovered by Richard Dawkins regarding Gaia theory.

In criticising Gaia theory, Dawkins claims that Earth cannot be a living organism because it does not have parents, and is therefore not the offspring of any other living organism. Dawkins also claims that Earth has no way of reproducing, again indicating that it cannot be a living organism.

The critique seems logical, certainly worth considering. As soon as I read the words my imagination roared into action.

What if Earth is indeed the offspring of another organism? Much like the way bacteria or viruses infect their host, life could have arrived on the planet fully formed, in the form of some fertilised rocky panspermia. Contained within is the DNA required to incubate the rocky planet with the necessary pathogens, bacteria, single cell organisms, elements, atmosphere and nutrients required for Gaia to grow into a healthy adult. The process may take billions of years, but from the moment sperm from another planet fertilises the earth, Gaia is born. Like all life forms, it then grows into an sexually mature adult, but on a much longer timescale than any other known life form.

Billions of years into its evolution, Gaia is now ready to reproduce again. This time however, it will send much more complex forms of life organisms to its next host planet, which will speed up its reproduction by an order of magnitude.

Inside of Gaia’s protection, care, and abundance, humanity grows more technologically advanced. Soon enough the human cells will be strong enough to survive on the harsh conditions of a baron egg planet. Sexual maturity is finally reached when the humanity cells are able to traverse the great distance between their host, and another egg. Thousands of the human cells die in the attempt to traverse this great distance, but eventually the strongest specimen will make it. As they reach the surface of the egg planet, contained within their DNA, and evident in all of their hopes and desires, is all the genetic information needed for Gaia’s daughter. Their presence and technology begins to reintroduce an atmosphere and the foetus’s tiny lungs begin to form. As the atmosphere roars into life, the human cells bring greenery, life forms and livestock, and eventually the rains begin to fall. A new daughter is born.

She will be much like her mother, but in many ways she is different. Her skin colour is darker, her skies more hazy, her appearance is unique, but she has all the knowledge and wisdom of her mother contained within the human cells that now occupy her. Her adolescent years are rebellious and creative, many phases come and go, until she stabilises into a well rounded, loving individual.

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It may not seem immediately obvious that Earth may have parents, or the ability to reproduce, but in considering humanity as highly evolved reproductive fluids, the reproductive process begins to become clear.