>>Consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Humans aren’t “given” a soul, we are souls, and have been given a body.<<
You quote C. S. Lewis. And I agree. I see our human Biological Machine as something our souls use as much as an astronaut uses a space suit. It is something we occupy during our brief period in this life. It is why the bible calls our body a temple.
But animals are more like “drones”. A form of “artificial intelligence”. They are mostly pre-programming with some limited learning ability. In living things we call this pre-programming “instincts”. It comes with the Biological Machine, which is why, although we are a soul, the machine still has power.
The bible calls the soul/machine combination the “natural man”. Then there is the spirit, which is a whole nother thing. Animals don’t have ‘em. At all.
Just letting you know, I will not be reading any comments from you again.
You’re a sick individual.
Animals can’t help what they are and are at our mercy so it is up to us to protect them and keep them safe and the ones that are meant to be consumed for food, slaughter them as humanly as possible. This poor kitty suffered at the hands of a cruel individual, one who can ramp up and do it to people. There is a side of me that would want to take a .45 and deliver the ultimate punishment to this sick person if the law would allow it. However, I do believe in redemption and a second chance so takng him to the woodshed would suffice. I do believe animals do have souls and spirits, much like the American Indians, Buddhists, Hindus and Jains do along with many Judeo-Christians. I am Christian, Lutheran, myself but I do see the world’s religions like spokes on a wheel where at the center, you have God, sort of a Universalist belief. On animals and religion, I’m much like Michael Savage.
Come to think of it, maybe there will be a time machines will have souls if we make robots advanced enough. I get headaches thinking about it, but I often joke, but wonder, if at some point this will happen.
Indeed. This sort of behavior is how one identifies superficially humanoid bodies which lack that feature.