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What If the Universe is Alive?

What If the Universe is Alive?

Last updated on: March 1, 2025 at 2:34 pm by Gregory T. Smith

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What If the Universe is Alive? 2025-03-01T14:34:45-08:00 Gregory T. Smith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Christians disparage Neopagans for believing in nature spirits. But both share a belief in animism–the view that the universe is alive.

Image by 사예 김 from Pixabay

World Religion Day is celebrated in January. There is no better time to discuss similarities between what many consider to be very different faiths. Many Christians call it woo-woo when witchy friends talk of tree-hugging or communing with nature. Churchgoers roll their eyes when they hear New Agers talking about spirits of the forest, field, or flood. They forget that Christianity (and its antecedent, Judaism) were much more heathen in origin than we often admit. Many years ago, I accidentally stumbled across this.

What If…

Decades ago, I was working a night security job with lots of time on my hands. I began creating a fantasy world for a Christian allegory I had never finished. Inspired by worlds like Narnia and Middle Earth, I asked myself, “What if the whole universe of my novel were sentient?” The scriptures often describe a creation with thought, feeling, and personality. I asked myself, “What if in my world, this was a living reality?”

A Sentient Creation

As I began to dig into the biblical texts, I discovered that there were more scriptures than I realized, describing the universe as alive. Today, we take Enlightenment thinking for granted. We divide the world into animate beings and inanimate matter. But our spiritual ancestors did not make such clear-cut designations. Here are just a few examples of Jewish and Christian scriptures that depict either a sentient creation or communicative non-humans:

Cognizant Cosmos

Psalm 19 suggests that the cosmos itself is cognizant of God’s presence and activity. As such, it is capable of worship and able to testify to God’s power. Verses 1-4 say:

The heavens are telling the glory of God,

    and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours forth speech,

    and night to night declares knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words;

    their voice is not heard;

yet their voice goes out through all the earth

    and their words to the end of the world.

The psalms are not isolated scriptural passages depicting a cognizant cosmos. Many Hebrew scriptures demonstrate the same concept. The New Testament also references a creation capable of thought or emotion. In Mark 4, Jesus and the disciples get caught in a freak storm that threatens to capsize their little boat. Verse 39 says:

…he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be silent! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

It does no good to rebuke something that can’t understand you. Just as Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and his disciples for their lack of faith, he chastises the wind and waves for their misbehavior. According to the Gospel writer, the natural elements are capable not only of defiance but of compliance as well. The disciples ask, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him (verse 41)?” We might as easily ask, “Who are these wind and waves, that they are capable of obedience?”

Romans 8:22-23 continues the conversation about an understanding universe. The apostle Paul writes:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

Creation groans in labor. It waits for God’s children to understand who they are as divine offspring. Creation anticipates the day—not only of our redemption but of the world’s restoration.

Living Landscapes

In the ancient worldview, animals were not the only non-human life forms. The landscape itself was living and aware. According to Joshua 24:26-27, stone is sentient enough to act as a witness:

Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak in the sanctuary of the Lord. Joshua said to all the people, “See, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us; therefore it shall be a witness against you if you deal falsely with your God.”

If stones can function as witnesses, then mountains themselves can play the judge, with God as the prosecuting attorney. Micah 6:1-2 says:

Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.2 Hear, you mountains, the case of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has a case against his people, and he will contend with Israel.

Isaiah 55:12 depicts a landscape jubilant over God’s invitation to abundant life:

For you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace;

the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song,

and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

If the living land can show such sentience, surely the stones themselves must be equally aware. On Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the crowds sing his praise. Luke 19:39-40 says:

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

It may be that Jesus was simply speaking in a mystical metaphor. Or the Lord of Creation so attuned himself with a sentient creation that he knew his beloved stones to be capable of speech. Perhaps rocks are always crying out—but we don’t have ears to hear.

Perceptive Plant Life

If the stones can bear witness, judge, and cry out, then how much more can plant life perceive God’s glory! Jesus knew that, beyond simple awareness, plants can discern the divine will. Even further, he held them accountable when they refused to bend to that will. Matthew 21:18-22 tells the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree that refused to yield fruit according to his expectations:

In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.”

According to Jesus’s understanding, fig trees are not alone in their perceptive ability. Jesus says in Luke 17:6 and Matthew 17:20 that if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can tell a mountain to be moved. Many translations render this “faith the size of a mustard seed.” Yet, this is not what the Greek says. It simply says, “faith in the manner of a mustard seed.” Could Jesus have meant that we must have the kind of faith that a mustard seed has? That’s the kind of faith that neither fears nor doubts—it simply believes and grows toward the light. If a mustard seed can move a clod of dirt through its faith, we can move mountains through ours.

Flowers Became Friends and Birds, Brothers

As I worked on my novel and continued my study, I became increasingly convinced that a sentient creation was the dominant view of the universe at the time when biblical authors penned their works. Rather than causing me to dismiss these as un-scientific (I still hold great regard for natural science), these verses appealed to my mystical nature. They invited me into a relationship with the world around me, where a flower could become a friend, and a bird could be a brother.

In my night security job, I patrolled two buildings, and the path through the woods between them. Each morning as springtime approached, I watched the world awaken with the sunrise. No longer was the universe made of biological clockwork. Instead, a sentient creation began to testify to me of the Creator’s love.

What If I Told You…?

I invite you to read my next article, “What If I Told You Animists are Particularly Close to Christianity?” In it, I will expand beyond a cognizant cosmos, living landscape, and perceptive plants. The article will discuss what the Bible says about animal awareness. It will also examine animism found throughout the history of Christianity. I hope you’ll join me.

For related reading, check out my other articles:

How Neo paganismHas Made Me a Better Christian
Is It Ok to Be Friends with People of Other Faiths?
Click to view my article category: “Heathen Christianity.”

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