Taking the spiritual element out of animism, we could define it as follows:
Animism: The invariance of living nature is spirit.
Spirit = self-organizing software agent.Darwin: evolution = competition between species.
Dawkins: evolution = competition between molecules.
Animism: evolution = competition between software agents.
- living nature is governed by spirits
- spirits are not physical (unlike bodies or other material objects)
- spirits are intrinsically agentic and capable of experience