Humans and Animals

[kokopelle]

I received some interesting feedback from a good friend regarding my Paul Goble quote:

Nothing in nature is evil. We may sometimes dislike flies or spiders, the skunk or snakes, and yet they only do what their Creator means them to do.

My friend said, "Oh, I can't begin to tell you how much I disagree with this. Humans are in nature, and there are some humans that have lived in history that I would consider evil. Soulless evil."

stargazercmc speaks a truth that is part of the big answer. I believe that Goble's statement is also true in the context that he was writing about animals separate from people. Elsewhere in the book Goble says, "God made man and woman after making everything else. Because the birds and animals, the weeds and grasses, the fishes and insects, are so much older than us, we respect them." I believe mankind has a place in the world that is part of nature and also separate from nature. Why? We are inherently congruent with nature, but somehow we forget this fact. Perhaps it is because we did come after everything else like Goble says. Perhaps we forgot our place next to nature because we've been told things like:

Genesis 1:28, God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Genesis 2:15, The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Genesis 2:19-20, 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.

Genesis 9:1-7 , Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
4 "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.

6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made man.

7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."

We are challenged to remember our relationship to nature as we forget or transmute the above teachings of our society. A true remembrance of our connection to nature short circuits the feelings of dominion over both nature and our fellow men. Cruel and stupid actions will remain. Mankind will always embrace cruelty and stupidity as we stumble through sin, our disconnection from our higher selves. More on that in another blog.

Comments

[franciscan.livejournal.com]

We still live in a time where so many still think of "nature, and then there are the humans"...

We are all one, and I agree with the notion that humans, with our acting out behavior toward the rest of the planet, have not always lived up to that reality.

The comment about evil on the part of "soul-less humans" was interesting, and I wanted to share a little around that. There is a shamanic concept of soul-loss. Psychology calls it "dissociation" While I don't for a minute believe that humans who have suffered soul loss are inherently evil, I do thing there is room to consider that soul loss does open doors for some behaviors that in our better moments, we would prefer to not have expressed.
Ours is the only species that lives in the world of duality. good-evil, black-white, then-now, now-later. And as such, we tend to place ourselves and one another in the good-evil category a lot. Since we also create what we think, I would suggest that our existence in duality has allowed for the possibility for humans to behave in ways that does not reflect our divine nature.

When we begin to see others as divine, and light-filled, we will move forward in creating that reality. As simplistic as that seems, and there are very many layers to this, I do think it is one step we can all take.

There is a phrase, "hate the sin, love the sinner" that has been over-used and bastardized by so many, but there is a core of truth in it. It is not an excuse for bigotry, but it does say that within every human being, there is that Light of the Creatrix that is there, no matter how dimmed by life and choices it is.

I cannot say that humans are evil while all of the rest of creation is good. It does not fit. And as we move into the paradigm of oneness, we will see more and more this reality that all of creation is good, and that Light resides in all things.

everything in nature --knows its place, knows to adapt

[doiasku.livejournal.com]

Even man does, only at a different pace, I think
We are the later species, more complex -- the 'earlier' species, must be more adaptable (see photo courtesy 'oaksong'), 'by nature', as they are closer to the foundation, closer to the Founder.

*my take

thanks for this great post ! I will pass it on....