The Great Evolutionary Story of Planet Earth

We are embedded in the great evolutionary story of planet Earth, the spare, elegant process of mutation and selection and bricolage. And this means that we are anything but alone.

— Ursula Goodenough

Who is a religious naturalist?

The religious naturalist orientation combines a naturalist worldview with ideals, perceptions, and values that have been long associated with traditional religions. Religious naturalists find religious meaning in the natural world.

The Religious Naturalist Association (RNA) is a 501c3 that was founded in 2014 and initially co-founded by Ursula Goodenough and colleagues as an online resource to bring together those who have adopted this orientation and those curious to learn about it.  For info, click here!

The Moral Imperative of our Time . . .

One can start from the perspective of a religious naturalist or from the perspective of the world religions and arrive at the same place: a moral imperative that this Earth and its creatures be respected and cherished.

— Ursula Goodenough

Extensively revised and in full color. Each chapter begins with an accessible story about the dynamics of Nature: the origins of the universe, the planet, and life; the workings of cells and organisms; the patterns of biological evolution and the resultant biodiversity; awareness and feelings; sex and intimacy; multicellularity and death; and two new chapters on human evolution and morality/ecomorality. Each is followed by a reflection on the spiritual sensibilities elicited by these science-based understandings, generating the foundations for a non-theistic religious naturalist orientation. 

To order the book, click here!

What if we truly saw nature as sacred?

How would that change everything? 

About Ursula Goodenough . . .

Ursula Goodenough is Professor of Biology Emerita at Washington University who retired to Martha’s Vineyard in 2017. She taught cell biology and evolution and engaged in research that focused on the sexual cycle of the green soil alga Chlamydomonas, on ciliary motility, and on algal biofuel precursors. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Microbiology Society, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and served as president of the American Society for Cell Biology. She and many others are developing what is called a religious naturalist orientation https://religious-naturalist-association.org and a new edition of her book, The Sacred Depths of Nature: How Life Emerged and Evolved (Oxford University Press) http://sacreddepthsofnature.com, describes her understandings of this orientation.