I think animal sacrifice instituted by God for His people indicates to me
that animals have no souls and so do not partake of original sin. Moorad
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Kouchoo" <richard.kouchoo@firstdata.com.au>
To: <bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 10:57 PM
Subject: Re: Do animals ever "sin" (was something else)
>
>
>
> >>>I once watched a group of DeBrazzas monkeys at a zoo. All the adults
were
> settling down for a nap, but one youngster had other ideas. He would wait
until
> one male was nodding off and then would climb over and yank his tail
repeatedly.
> When the male got fed up and started to move towards the troublemaker, he
ran
> for his mother. The male would settle down again, only to be woken by
another
> yank on the tail. Obviously the youngster knew it was harrassing the
other, but
> is it sin?<<<
> David Campbell
>
> I think we have to draw the line between what animals do and the
'meditative'
> characteristics of sin. What we need to consider is that we have free
will, not
> just in our very actions but in the way we think, and this is where there
is a
> divergence between us and lower species.
>
> We have a pre-meditative and a post-meditative dualism of action and
thought
> built into our soul. I will use a relatively grotesque but useful example
to
> illustrate the point. If I wanted to kill my aunt to inherit her millions,
I
> would need to pre-meditate her murder by devising schemes to do away with
her in
> such an ingenious way so as to avoid capture and suspicion. The result
would be
> that I would inherit the money, and this may seem _good_ to me. BUT and
this is
> a big but, I KNOW for sure that I have committed a wrongful act through my
> post-meditative powers of thought/will. I know for sure that I have
carried-out
> an evil act in its purest form. My conscious is not clear even though the
> results of my actions seem to be good.
>
> And this is what separates us from other animals. There is a huge gulf
between
> humans and animals in terms of _results_ of actions and meditative
abilities.
> The young monkey would perceive 'interesting' results from his harassment
of the
> adult but he would not be able to post-meditate his actions in terms of
Good and
> Evil. Hence he cannot sin!
>
> Therefore one must admit that there is something very special about the
human
> soul that no other creature can posses: Our ability to perceive good and
evil
> (or meaning) from actions and thoughts.
>
> Richard Kouchoo.
>
>
>
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