Animals & the Image of God

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Jae

Well-Known Member
Humans are constantly interacting with other animals. Not only do humans and animals work together in such labor as farming and law enforcement, but many people in Canada include in their families such animals as cats, dogs, small rodents, fish and birds. Some even venture beyond, adopting such beasts as tarantulas, snakes, and water monitors.
 
Neigh phi LEM is a module still beyond ... with X Q is ... relief to be out !

But heh can't see it ...
 
I don't get it, either. Except aesthetically perhaps, a tarantula is as much god's creation as a cat.
 
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All God's creatures got a voice in the choir (so goes a song we sang on occasion in my UU church), regardless of how we may feel about some of them.
 
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Jae said:
Do you include the animals you eat and swat in that?
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Being eaten is part of food animals' place in existence. Pure and simple. Being swatted perhaps not so much, though I would point out that many animals evolve defenses against other, potentially harmful animals that can be injurious or fatal to those potentially harmful animals. Swatting is just our human version of that, esp. where mosquitoes and biting flies are concerned. Mosquito and fly-borne diseases and parasites are a major cause of human death and illness so defending ourselves against them is a natural thing in my books.
 
Mendalla said:
Being eaten is part of food animals' place in existence. Pure and simple. Being swatted perhaps not so much, though I would point out that many animals evolve defenses against other, potentially harmful animals that can be injurious or fatal to those potentially harmful animals. Swatting is just our human version of that, esp. where mosquitoes and biting flies are concerned. Mosquito and fly-borne diseases and parasites are a major cause of human death and illness so defending ourselves against them is a natural thing in my books.
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Doesn't sound like you're giving them much chance to be choir singers.
 
Jae said:
Doesn't sound like you're giving them much chance to be choir singers.
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I see "voice in the choir" as metaphorical, meaning they have a place in the world. For some, that is providing sustenance as part of the food web. Even mosquitoes have a place (as food for birds, bats, etc. to name one) but, as I said, other animals have defenses against predators or things that can harm them, so why shouldn't we defend ourselves against mosquitoes?
 
Mendalla said:
I see "voice in the choir" as metaphorical, meaning they have a place in the world. For some, that is providing sustenance as part of the food web. Even mosquitoes have a place (as food for birds, bats, etc. to name one) but, as I said, other animals have defenses against predators or things that can harm them, so why shouldn't we defend ourselves against mosquitoes?
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What does it mean to you that humans are in God's image?
 
According to the Animal Behavior Institute, “…interactions with animals can reduce our stress levels and increase our sense of well-being… Animals create enormous motivation in people of all ages and can be an integral component in the success of physical treatments and educational programs.”
 
Jae said:
What does it mean to you that humans are in God's image?
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Everything is in God's image when you're a pantheist.:)

More seriously, it means we embody the divine nature of existence in ourselves, but no more so than any other part of existence. What makes use stand out is not relationship to the divine, but our awareness and understanding that such a relationship exists. We are able to think about and seek to understand that relationship moreso than most other terrestrial beings. Of course, I am someone who would not be shocked to discover other sapient life in the universe which would then mean we lose even that as something uniquely human.
 
Jae said:
Doesn't sound like you're giving them much chance to be choir singers.
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Heard a choir of f(rogues) last night ... deadly to what I could have swatted aside ... like God bugs thinkers? With excess central focussed love ... there can be no intellects ... thus some people loose it! Feel lonely Jae ... you alone with the great formless void ...

Do you sense a vacancy ...
 
Viruses and bacteria are also living organisms.

Some bacteria are beneficial, of course.

Others, and I believe all viruses, are not.
 
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