Re: Ape talk
George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Sat, 07 Mar 1998 20:19:38 -0500Charles Cairns wrote:
>
> George Murphy wrote in part re image of God:
>
> > 2) seems to me fundamental in defining the image as involving a
> >relationship with God, & 1) then tells us qualities humanity is to
> >possess because of that relationship....
>
> Thank you very much, George. I like Athanasius' ideas as well, and will put
> him on my planned reading list (which gets longer by the day). I have
> avoided considering reason or Logos part of the image of God, because it
> could be argued that some primates possess reason (rhesus monkeys using a
> crate as a stool for reaching bananas, for example). Not the reason you
> mention, ie, the ability to communicate with God, but reason nonetheless;
> but if even it is the most rudimentary, so long as they possess some little
> bit of it, it puts reason on a long list of characteristics that we once
> thought were exclusively human.
>
> However, I've given it more thought in recent weeks since Russell's original
> post, and I don't see a problem with primates possessing anything human in
> some small measure; in fact, it fits quite nicely with the "coming of age"
> view that I shared in a message to Glenn earlier.
& if the Logos is the One "in [whom] all things hold together"
(Col.1:17) then it wpould seem that there is a basic connection of the
Logos with all creatures. (Col. doesn't use the Logos language of Jn,
but, being closer to the wisdom tradition, but they're similar.)
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@imperium.net
http://www.imperium.net/~gmurphy