If I consider myself an agnostic, and posit no deities, then why do I refer to Earth as Her?
Several reasons.
The first is semantic. We English speakers divide our world of perception into people and things. Things seldom command respect. They are usually seen as either inert and impossible to interact with or as suitable for use with no concern for our effect on the thing. Usually a thing is considered more valuable for our use of it, our shaping of it. A rock becomes a sculpture or a gem or a paving stone, a tree becomes board feet or carbon offsets.
The second is structural. Any dissipative or self-organizing structure is unpredictable in its transformations between stable states. This makes it somewhat unknowable in our experience. At the scale of the earth, the unpredictability is akin to our experience of a sentient self-directed being.
We don't worry about how an inanimate thing will react, even less, respond, when we interfere with it. Things don't respond, that's a characteristic of individuals.
I may not want to have a conversation with Her, certainly not beseech Her, but I do want to make and honor an intricate and personal relationship, and understand our effects on each other.
