 Human cultures have developed many views of the planet . Earth is sometimes personified as a deity . In many cultures it is a mother goddess that is also the primary fertility deity , and by the mid @-@ 20th century the Gaia Principle compared Earth 's environments and life as a single self @-@ regulating organism leading to broad stabilization of the conditions of habitability . Creation myths in many religions involve the creation of Earth by a supernatural deity or deities . 
