One aspect of (Christian) religion which bothers me is that it elevates humanity over the rest of Nature

That's the only bit I like; those Gnostic undercurrents that filter through RC Theology in implication of a far darker & more substantial mythos that the unsuall guff. There's your Green Man too by the way, Shimrod; Nature afflicting Humanity with animal urges, sin, lust, desire, instinct, disease and ultimately death which is why pre-Reformation Catholic churches & cathedrals are bending down with them...