Soren wrote on Dec 30
th, 2011 at 9:51pm:
Deifying nature is not atheism or club of humanity. Investing nature with meaning that subsumes all humans and binds them together in something common, something shared, something meaningful beyond them individually and only in community with each other and nature is - religion.
I always think that in the name of monotheism, Ashtoreth, the wife of Jehovah got a raw deal from the Judeo Christian religions. She represented the mother goddess, and had strong associations with nature and the Earth. She was frequently represented as a tree and worshipped by the Jews right up to the 6th Century BCE.
These religions deny the natural world, the flesh and any earthly matters, and cast her out as being the "Great Harlot" of Revelations along with any nurturing motherly aspects of religion .
From that time onwards any reference to the feminine divinity or traditional ceremonies in sacred groves celebrating nature have been denounced as witchcraft.
The worship of nature in itself is not necessarily atheistic, but it has long been anathema to the Abrahamists .
The God of nature is also the Deist God. (male by convention)