[Redbook4:88-89][19871003:1650e]{Men
and Animals}[3rd
October 1987]
19871003.1202
[continued]
This*
raises the interesting question of how Animals differ from Men.
Given that Animals are capable of having individual characters of a
mental or behavioural kind, it is conceivable that they also have
something analogous to a Soul**; or, on the other hand, that their
behavioural differences are purely 'mechanical' in the sense that
they are due to the differing influences of the Material World. It
does not matter all that much, because I am fairly certain that no
Animal has the Spirit of God within him as
do***
Angels and Men.****
Since
it is the Spirit which knows God and in due course returns to God,
leaving the Soul around it, it follows that Animals do not “go to
Heaven”. I am fairly certain about this absence of the separated
Spirit of God in Animals (not to be confused with the immanent
presence of God# hidden***
in and pervading all things material), because a sure sign of the
Spirit of God in men (as in Angels) is an interest in God – in
worshipping God, or discussing the existence or otherwise of god, for
example – provoked by the recognition of the Spirit within.
So
far as I know, no animal has ever shown the slightest sign of
worshipping God#* or even being an atheist: so far as I know, all
Human societies have had some form of supreme God in their mind's
eye, even if the opposing forces are sometimes given equal status.
The
existence of Individuals who profess atheism does not avoid this
argument, as the occurrence of the question itself is enough. If we
were to encounter a race of animals or aliens who recognised the
possibility of God, I think we should do well to consider them Human.
*[See
last previous entry.]
[This
entry is not an argument against the scientific description of Man as
an Animal, which is accepted. It might make it easier if one were to
mentally insert the word “other” in front of “animals”
wherever it occurs.]
**[See
footnote **** to last previoue entry.]
***[{Underlining}
added later.]
****But
(see VI.217) in some other way, as e.g. p89
[in
this entry at #.]
#Yes
– the Spirit, more or less veiled. <891001>
#*It
would serve me right if we found that what we had thought were
territorial markings by dogs and cats
were in fact sacrifices to nature-spirits.... <871003>
[I
suspect that this analysis is affected by its viewpoint inside the
Universe. From the viewpoint of “God”, outside this Universe of
time and place, it may be that as all things exist in a Moment, there
is no question of anyone or any thing “going to Heaven”: from
that extra-universal viewpoint, each creature (that is, each created
entity, however created) is to some individual extent, or none, “in
Heaven”, i.e. with (God) the Spirit, in that one Moment, depending
on the degree of separation of its essence, information structure,
mind or “Soul” from the Spirit (of God). That does not in itself
invalidate our intra-universal points of view: it is, at the end of
the day, all a question of perspective. Cf.
next entry, final sentence.<20160831>]
[PostedBlogger26for27102016]
