AM I A BEAST? OUR RELATION TO THE ANIMAL WORLD

by Sr Valery Walker o.p 

Cardinal Schönborn who is a Dominican, tells an anecdote he heard himself: At a community gathering a Dominican academic announced that he had almost finished writing a book that would prove that human beings were no more than animals. Another father responded, “Is it an autobiography?”

As Catholics we are quite sure that we ARE different from the rest of the animal world – though we certainly agree that we belong in the genus of ‘animal’. Against a certain popular opinion – that we are perhaps merely superior orang-utans! (In America two orang-utans have learned how to play touch-screen games on a computer; and a female has learned sign language!) We have our Saviour and our Faith assuring us that we are created in his image and have an eternal destiny. All the same, not everybody shares our Faith and it is useful to be able to present reasons based on observation, experience and tradition that support what we believe. I am going to begin by looking at a philosophical tradition concerning the being of things – animal, vegetable and mineral, and therefore, at what we share with our fellow animals. SUBSTANCES When we say the Creed (Nicene) we praise Christ as “consubstantial with the Father”. This word “substance” plays an important part, not just in relation to our belief in Christ’s divinity, and in the Holy Eucharist, but with regard to existence, or being in general. “Substance”, a term originating with Aristotle and St Thomas Aquinas, stands for the unity and identity that underlies the accidental qualities of any existing thing. So, for example, my outward appearance has changed dramatically from when I was aged 2 to now (luckily!); but I still remain Valery; the accidentals of my appearance (size, hair-colour etc.) have changed, but I am still the same female, my substantial underlying identity remains the same. The word substance actually comes from two latin words, sub and stare, meaning to stand under/underlying. Of course, with the Holy Trinity we are not talking about accidental qualities or change, but the Oneness in unity and identity of the Three Divine Persons. So where does this take us with regard to the animal world and ourselves? SUBSTANCE Well, the first thing to be admitted is, that every single existing thing, animals and us included, is a “substance”, a unity with its own unique identity; a “thing” with its own particular accidental qualities: colour, shape, size etc. This is true within every genus and species of thing: every single, individual thing has its own unique identity and unity. Have you ever marvelled at snowflakes? No single one is identical with another! (For us believers, doesn’t this give us a profound reason for believing in God’s Personal love for every individual thing: “not one sparrow… you are more precious than sparrows.”) DESIGN We notice further about things, substances, – including ourselves – that in every case the body is designed to fit the particular nature of the being in question. A desert plant is equipped for desert survival; jungle plants for jungle survival. Squirrels have bushy tails for balance and fish, fins. I have used the word design (above) designedly! In our own experience of making things we know that a design, a plan, an idea (for a painting, for a cake, a new arch in a building) must come first; then the necessary materials are collected and finally the thing is made. Likewise it is clear from experience and observation that the matter, the stuff of the world, is fitted to the being and needs of the creatures of the world, even to their adaptation to the changing climate of the world and its ecological demands – hence the development of the species (evolution?). I was very interested to learn, while in Norway, that in the mountainous coastal areas where sea birds are numerous and gulls eggs a delicacy, the little breed of dog trained to climb among the rocks and find the eggs has an extra toe on each foot that enables him to get a better grip in slippery rock shale etc.! All this supports the words of St Paul in the Letter to the Romans, “Ever since God created the world his everlasting power and deity – however invisible – have been there for the mind to see in the things he has made…it is rational to acknowledge God.” A clear demonstration of a mind at work behind the universe! Of intelligent design! In making, always, first comes the design, (the blue-print, the idea) and then the stuff, the matter, wherewith to make them be. FORM In philosophical terms, the idea, the blue-print, put into action is called the form. You have a plan for a greenhouse in the garden; you collect the appropriate materials from HomeBase; you build; from the materials you produce a greenhouse; greenhouse is the form of the thing you have produced. The form can be defined as the act of being. In the animal world, in conceiving offspring the parents, in supplying the matter pass on the form; in this process we can see very clearly that the matter is for the form and not vice versa! The whole purpose of reproduction is, as the word suggests, the re- production of the species! of the form of the animal parent. So – we are part of the animal world, differing from every other kind of animal in much that is bodily, since our body is designed to serve the kind of being we are. So far so good – but is that all? LIVING AND NON-LIVING There is another important difference, already indirectly referred to, among the things that make up our universe : many of them are living and many are non-living. We are very aware of this: if we find some unknown thing (on the beach, for instance), we will look and poke and ask “Is it alive?” – looking not just for any movement (as the waves will push the pebbles around) but for self-movement. “Life” is movement from within an existing thing; self movement. Then we observe degrees of movement: Life we observe, is found in ascending degrees of competence, So from plants with movement, feeding, growing, reproducing, we move to animals able to do all the former things, but also to move themselves around, to recognise the world around them, to communicate, even to show emotions. Each new stage contains what is found in the former but introduces some further excellence. So we see that we ourselves have all the bodily functions of plant and animal life; we have also animal emotions and feelings – though on the whole we prefer to say of them, See how human they are! In a geographical magazine recently it was written of proboscis monkeys: “Perhaps they are too easy to anthropomorphise as they frown, chew their lips and scratch their behinds!” a humbling reminder of so much that we share ! INTELLIGENCE In contrast to human life, animal life and knowledge are limited to survival and physical flourishing; animals act by means of their senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell; they have intelligence of a limited sort. We share in gaining knowledge through the senses; but when it comes to intelligence we outshine the rest of the animal world. Our intelligence, called reason is much more wide ranging: we are able to know all individual things and from them to make judgements, discoveries, develop sciences, ask questions about ourselves. This knowledge which enables us to be masters of the rest of the animal world, as well as so much of the world itself; it introduces the important concept of free will. INTELLIGENCE AND FREE WILL To quote from a new book on Catholic Education, “Thinking Christian Ethos” by David Albert Jones and Stephen Barrie: “Education is a distinctive characteristic of human life. Birds imitate one another and many animals learn from their parents how to hunt or what to be wary of, but there is no parallel in the rest of the animal kingdom to the extraordinary investment human communities make in educating their young.” The book goes on to point out that education involves the whole human being, body and soul, senses and intellect, emotions and mind and above all it indicates purpose : education: in latin e-ducere to lead out: but where to? PURPOSE, DIRECTION, GOAL If we observe the lives and behaviour of the many animal species, we notice that it is not only their bodies that are designed for the particular purpose, but the lives they live are as it were ‘written into’ the part they play in the eco-system of our world. The choices they can make are circumscribed by the part they have to play; the goals of their lives are fixed for them. In contrast, human beings are the only ‘animals’ that freely choose the direction of their lives; education enables the choosing. CHOOSING HAPPINESS Even with free will, however, we find that humans have a link with the animals. We too have our choices limited; we can only choose what we see as good for ourselves – everything I choose, I choose because it seems good to me and will lead to contentment, happiness, self-fulfilment. Even if I choose to kill myself, I do so because it seems better than living. The good (not necessarily moral good), pleasure, happiness is the ‘designer goal’ of the will. My freedom lies in choosing what seems good to me; and because my body is also part of me, my bodily desires can be a pull on my will; but reason – even common sense - should guide my will to true good. LIFE So to sum up so far, “life” means movement from within towards goals : from basic, simple bodily movements, to the limited movements of the sense knowledge of animals, to the sophisticated “movements” of human intelligence and free will. But is that all? Animals have their goals fixed for them, they have at least a definite, if limited, purpose for their existence. But what about us? Apart from finding some sort of happiness in life – and many, many people seem unable to find any happiness – or have misery, suffering forced upon them, have we no ultimate meaning for our existence? FAITH AND THE SOUL As Christians, of course, we have our Catholic Faith that tells us: Yes we have a glorious goal offered us ! We humans have a non-bodily, spiritual, immortal part of us that we call our soul and we have an immortal destiny of perfect happiness and glory in the knowledge and company of our ‘Designer’, God. REASONABLE EVIDENCE But what about reasonable evidence? Even on the level of human reason and experience there are at least two lines of reasoning and cultural tradition that also say No, that is not all; there is more to our difference from animals than intelligence and free will – though both intelligence and will contribute to the ‘more’. CULTURE The strongest and most obvious line is the witness of cultures, world-wide, throughout the ages. Throughout the ages the practices of religious belief in every culture (sometimes horrible, sometimes including animals, but that is not the point at issue) witness to belief in a non-bodily dimension to human existence, especially after death; often to an immaterial ruler or rulers of this material universe; and in some cases to an account to be given after death for the life lived here on earth. Arthur Grimble story from “A Pattern of Islands”: He visited a small uninhabited island that he had been told no-one visited because it was the ‘way of the dead’, that is the way taken by the souls of the dead on their way to the lands of the dead. While he was on the island he observed a man running across the island, looking neither to right nor left; he was surprised but thought no more of it. When he returned to the village on the island where he was staying, he found that a man of the village had just died and when he saw the body he recognised the man he had seen running ! After my little bit of local research, we might say that even in today’s materialistic society there is an underlying recognition of a deeper level of reality than that we know so well. PHILOSOPHY The second line of witness to an immaterial soul or form comes again from the Greek philosophers via St Thomas Aquinas. Aristotle, observing the human mind and intelligence, saw that, as we have already seen, there are two obvious ways of obtaining knowledge:  Through the senses;  Through abstraction. SENSE KNOWLEDGE The senses work by contact and can know individual things and things in their individuality. Memory stores the information acquired and what St Thomas calls our “common sense” recognises and identifies what has already been learned. We see this at work in the animal world where, eg. squirrels know what food they want and learn by experience how to get it – for instance, from somebody’s bird-feeder ! ABSTRACT KNOWLEDGE Human beings, however, whose knowledge begins from the senses in the same way, and must follow that way all through life, also have the ability to take from experiential knowledge abstract ideas, leading to all the sciences; (scientific, philosophical, historical, biological, metaphysical etc.) So Mendel from the observation of his sweet-peas, arrived at the discovery of genetics, which in its turn has led to further scientific discoveries. Human beings have the use of reason, we are rational animals. Speaking in a general way, we can say of ourselves that what identifies my being or substance, what is the human form or soul, is rationality, reason, personality. Even more importantly, reason allows self-knowledge and friendship; human beings are persons who can know others as persons and can love.. Sense knowledge identifies the rest of the animal world, it is their form or soul. NON-BODILY Now although our abstract knowledge is dependent on the knowledge we obtain through our senses, nevertheless it has been shown that this rational mind, which we call the soul, cannot be of the body. The argument is this: The pupil of the eye is colourless, to enable it to receive all colours. If my ears are filled with the deafening sound of pop music, they cannot receive the sound of my friend’s voice. Similarly, if my intellect is a bodily organ its own body-liness will prevent it being able to know all bodily things: to know all bodily things necessarily requires a non-bodily power. The rational soul is immaterial. THE SOUL A SUBSTANCE IN ITS OWN RIGHT The rational soul is designed to be the form or soul of a body, making the human person. Because it is immaterial, the rational soul is a being in its own right, a substance; which is why, on the death of the body it lives on. It lives on as a part of the human being; a part that is a subsistent being with its proper identity and uniqueness; but still incomplete without the body. When an animal dies, because its form is identical with the body and its senses, nothing remains but the dead body. SUMMING UP At the beginning of this talk, I described how every existing thing has, underlying its accidental qualities of size, colour etc., a unity and identity that make it one, a substance . So the boy and the man are substantially the same; the foal and the race horse likewise. We also saw that substances can be living or non-living and that bodies are fitted to, designed for, the nature or form of every genus or species of being. We saw that among the living there are those creatures, animals, that have intelligence and live by their senses: they have a sensitive soul wholly identified with the body. Others, humans, have intelligence and live by reason – they have an immaterial rational soul which though a part of human nature, makes one unified whole with the body and establishes the person. Consequently, the immaterial soul is a being, a substance in its own right and being immaterial, or spiritual, cannot die. It places human kind on the edge, so to speak, of the world of spiritual things. CONCLUSION The philosophers of old and, as we have seen, the cultures, had their own ideas about the relationship of the soul to the spiritual world and about what happens to the soul after the death of the body; some were nearer to the truth than others. As we know by Faith, that disaster of the sin of Adam and Eve, wrecking the Designer’s original plan, in addition caused intelligence to be darkened and too often overtaken by the pleasures of the senses. Any clear idea of what might be the final, spiritual end of human life got lost along the way. It required the mercy of the Designer, the spiritual God, to choose out Abraham and his descendants, teach them about himself and make them his messengers to the rest of the world until he should send his own Son to bring about a final restoration, or rather, recreation, of the original design. That design was a design of love, since God is Three loving Persons. God designed that those human beings who were prepared to intelligently follow his Son, after death should enjoy an eternal loving spiritual friendship and fellowship with God and with their fellow human beings; and eventually receive back their bodies - so, making them whole again.