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For the last 11 years, I've been exploring similar issues in music and community, in part through my band Gaia Consort. I wrote music for a lot of folks in the Pagan community, thinking that of any group of people, Pagans who cliam to celebrate the living earth as "divine" would get excited about catching on to the hard science of people like James Lovelock who are working with similar ideas.
As it turns out, they do and they don't. People attach meaning to ideas in complete disregard to even the most precise language, as long as they want to see it that way. The word "god" just has way too much baggage.
We don't need "god" or "spirituality" or any "bridge" between science and fairy tales. We will be healthier humans eventually, if we cultivate a community that celebrates and embraces the awe inspired by our experiences as part of an entirely natural universe.
We don't need a new word for "god" - art and science will fill the gaps when we let go of religion. Don't worry about finding "meaning" - we do it by making it ourselves with or without religious metaphor.
Whatever name we give to the totality of all beings and things, it's awe inspiring named or not. Any name you give it will just detract. "God" will probably take you farther from the direct experience than any other word.
