Implications of the Change in Metaphor
Shifting our central metaphor from physics to ecology
will have effects far beyond the scope of this essay. Most importantly
from a religious point of view, it will facilitate three changes that will
have great impact in their own right:
The effects of a culture's central metaphor are pervasive.
They lie behind every idea and concept, affecting even those people who
think that they have rejected the underlying set of beliefs. Shifting from
a physical or mechanistic metaphor to an ecological one will change more
than just how we generate our power or dispose of our garbage. It will
affect everyone, whether they consider themselves practitioners of the
new religion or not, and it will change everything.