[Global2010]

I was reading out loud to another person from this youth Catholic guide.

The capacity to think and make free choices, we have an important dignity:

Example from the book We see a man walking his dog on a leash and think nothing of it, yet if his wife was on the end of the leash we would become upset. OK I said but the friend said not unless the wife enjoyed the submisiveness and wanted to be on the leash.
(I don't think that was the point Mister)
OK but on with the book saying because we are human beings we have rational "souls" this great capacity for thinking and choosing, whereas animals and plants do not.

[drtom]

because we are human beings we have rational "souls" this great capacity for thinking and choosing, whereas animals and plants do not.

Is this really so? If I condition my dog through punishment not to eat the neighbor's bunny rabbits, and he follows, is that different from conditioning a criminal? The dog chooses not to eat the bunny in order to avoid punishment, the criminal chooses not to shoplift in order to avoid punishment. Rather than comparing extreme polarizations, that is an animal just driven by instinct (eg. a snake) vs a highly rational person, move the two groups closer together and compare a primate to people attending the Jerry Springer Show. And the book tries to tell me that the latter have this "great capacity for thinking and choosing"?