I agree. The firestarting thing I’ve seen in boys a lot - usually if they do it once just for fun (ie lighting some paper in a field, but by accident the field catches fire, as opposed to purposely catching the field on fire), and don’t do that kind of thing again, it is normal boy stuff.
But to purposely burn anything other than sticks, wood, paper and so on trying to be safe, is a red flag.
Bedwetting - I’ve known some kids to wet the bed at a later age than is normal, and I would agree that it is a sign of emotional problems. But curable, if it is not accompanied by the other items, and not later on into, for instance, adolesence.
BTW, anyone saying that animals and humans are merely biological machines I take issue with. Animals feel affection - both given to them, and express it for others, they feel pain and fear. Machines do not feel anything as there is no consciousness.
Consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Humans aren’t “given” a soul, we are souls, and have been given a body.
Remember Balaam’s donkey? He saw the angel before Balaam. Was that donkey a biological feelingless machine?
You think animals eyes are just for decoration? There’s no one looking out through those eyes?
People who are purposely cruel to animals are not just psychologically sick, they are evil and can very rarely be cured.
>>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.