The Salvation of the Spiritual Automaton

[Guest guest]

Is your pet dog merely a collection of cells biologically disposed to

survival ..? Or does it have a spiritual nature the same as you ..?

 

More importantly, do all animals, or some animals have Eternal Souls and

will they somehow survive after death ..?

 

These questions have vexed philosophers and theologians centuries and

views on the subject are as varied as the beasts on Noah's Ark.

 

Scientists have revealed that we here about 89% of our genes with the

pigmy chimpanzee. We share all but 300 of the known 26,588 genes of the

human genome with mice.

 

One American study claimed that the neurons in the human brain that gave

us a sense of self awareness, were also present in great apes and other

non-human primates.

 

But these are merely small pieces of empirical evidence that human beings

share remarkable skills and similarities with other beings.

 

Interestingly, or word animal is derived from of the Latin "anima", which

means "soul".

 

The seventeenth century French philosopher Descartes thought animals had

no souls, no rights and no feelings and were no more than automata .. like

clocks.

 

Pope Pius IX opposed the establishment of the Italian Society for the

Prevention of Cruelty to Animal in the mid nineteenth century on the

grounds that animals had no souls.

 

Thomas Aquinas also thought animals were soulless but warned we should

care for them lest on the Day of Judgement "they give evidence against

us".

 

But, Martin Luther apparently said when his pet died: "be thou comforted

little dog. Thou too, in resurrection shall have a little golden tail.

 

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist faith, loudly proclaimed that

animals had an afterlife.

 

Pope John Paul II might agree. A decade ago, he said the way man was

created suggested a relationship with animals had said we should feel

"solidarity with smaller brethren".

 

Judaism defines soul as the breath of life and all living beings have it.

But for them, the relationship of an animal's soul differs from the

human's -- which for them, returns to God at the point death.

 

Islam states animals have spirits but not Eternal Souls. Hindus believe

all things have a soul.

 

Christianity has traditionally taught that an Eternal Soul is limited to

humans, although there have been teachers as diverse as Francis of Assisi

and Billy Graham who believe that animals exist in the afterlife.

 

Those who oppose the idea of animal Souls maintain the soul is the product

of mind to choose between good and evil, love and they.

 

Some believe animals might have Souls, but that they are not immortal.

Their argument is animals have animated Souls, not rational Souls that

understand the concept of Redemption.

 

The Reverend Andrew Linzey, Ethics Professor at Oxford University argued

that such rationality was valid only from a human perspective.

 

"So-called rational humans would have difficulty passing a pigeon's

intelligence test", he said. "The question isn't whether animals will be

in heaven, since they are sinless and innocent. The real question is

whether humans, who are violent, sinful and faithless will be there."

 

Which brings us, naturally, to computers.

 

Artist, Loretta Skeddle recently organised an exhibition in New York by

programming a small group of Apple Macs to recite prayers to one another.

Visitors at the exhibition were encouraged to kneel in the centre of a

group of computers arranged in a circle and asked to interact with the

machines by pushing buttons that looked like rosary beads.

 

The sight of computers in a circle reciting the Lord's Prayer was silly to

some and sacrilegious to others.

 

But Skeddle hoped the cyber rosary would help people think about their own

spirituality and even to question whether computers, with technology

blurring the line between human and digital, will eventually indeed some

kind of moral structure or even religion.

 

And .. could they then go to heaven ..?

 

-- Christopher Wynter

http://www.anunda.com

Kundalini-Tantra