Burgy wrote: Mike wrote: "They say men only receive such "spirits" when we
enter into a
relationship with God. If that is the case, then it seems to me there is no
real difference between a mentally retarded human being and a chimpanzee."
... I do not see that the second sentence flows from the first.
You are right. It does not. It does, however, flow from the first sentence in
that paragraph. There I wrote, "I have heard some say that our greater
intellectual capacity, permitting us to have a relationship with God, is all
that makes us different from animals."
The sad fact is that some people are so severely mentally retarded that they
have no more intellectual capacity than animals. However, I believe all
people, regardless of their intellectual capacity are made in God's image and
have, unlike animals, been given eternal spirits by God. I agree with you
that those who say that the only difference between us and animals is our
greater intellectual capacity are wrong. But that is, in effect, what all
atheists maintain, and even some who call themselves "Christians," but deny
that we have "souls" or "spirits" within us which are unlike the "souls" or
"spirits" which animals possess.
I hope you did not misunderstand me to be saying that the mentally
handicapped are any less human or any less "spiritual" than the rest of us.
That is not my belief. It is a belief which I was criticizing.
Mike
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