The pets have become human!

“Some people think that humans are just plain more important than other animals. I ask: More important to whom?” Christine Korsgaard

God. Humans are more important to God.

There once was a time where the animal was feared and not a friend. A human was a rational creature set apart from the rest of creation. What can possibly happen when we bring the two too close together?

The first death in my life that impacted me deeply was my dog. I sat on my porch as I watched my dog of 13 years experience kidney failure in front of my eyes. Her hair stuck to my clothes months after, and the sound of her collar jingles on my nightstand to this day. I left to go out of town while she was in distress. I had sat in the grass and knew the reality of what was to come, although there were no professional indicators yet. While on vacation in South Carolina my dad called me while I was preparing for dinner and told me that my pet was euthanized and relinquished from her pain. The crickets and cicadas drowned out my cries. Up to this point, I had cried a handful of times in my adult life.

To have a pet, or any animal, is to love it. God may have given us dominion, but that certainly gives us no right to abuse that power, as we will get into later. We have every right to treat these creatures with respect. I want to preface this post with that because I have a heart for animals and pets, however, they are not equal to the human.

In no other time in our history has there ever been an ethical dilemma between man choosing man over animal. Well, until now. I credit the western outlook on empathy and love to Jesus Christ for this. I think there is no better way to live one’s life than that example, however, man is now equal with animal, and this just isn’t so.

Our society loves animals: A lot.

A Gallup poll had a survey of prompts where people voted on whether instances were morally acceptable and morally wrong. Divorce ruled 81% acceptable/ 13% wrong, Abortion 52/38, Gambling 71/25, and so on. The one thing I desire to shed light on is buying/wearing animal fur at 60/37. Abortion is one percentage point higher on the morally wrong scale compared to buying animal fur. A human being with unique DNA which contains the Image of God has a one percentage point advantage over animal fur.

When man was created by God for God, he designed them in his image.

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. -Genesis 1:27

Have we ever thought about the image of God? The Imago Dei.

No, in fact, most of us have not. I haven’t really. What does it look like to be the image of God? Let’s establish some definitional basis.

image | ˈimij | noun1 a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art:

We know we are God’s representatives. We are the bodies in which he lives. In no other being or animal is such a gift granted.

We are set apart. We are different. We are the Image of God.

The Hebrew word: Tzelem is the word we see used in Genesis for image. It refers again to likeness or representative.

That is a lot of one liners. Let’s see if I can put some paragraphs together…

God is human, but the Father is not trapped in a body. The Son came as human, but also God. The Father is God, but not human. So, Jesus is the visible Image of God, while we are image-bearers. When I think of an image, however, I think of a picture. A picture captures the exact moment pixel by pixel. It differs none to what my eyes had seen in the moment. If this is how I see myself in relation to the Father, then I am not seeing God.

I am seeing my Image of God.

This is a dangerous game. This is what got the Israelites and every civilization wrapped up in a whirlwind of endless pursuit. They all tried to capture God with a depiction. Desiring something they could see was just the tip of the ice, as underneath lies a deeper meaning: Wanting to be gods equal with God. Why do you think we have an enemy? He desired god-status and achieved a frivolous version at the price of death.

We must not make God into a depiction. The Father has never been seen in all his fullness because when he showed up in our likeness, we killed him. My mind likes to imagine what the Father entails, but I am happy to concede that I can never paint the mural.

Humans are set apart. We had a separate creation sequence different from when land animals were created. I must be making this up! Surely there is no discrepancy between the way man sees man and the way they see animal. Surely equality is an extreme view set upon the fringes.

In her new book, “Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals,” Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy Christine Korsgaard makes the case that humans are not inherently more important than animals and therefore should treat them much better than we do.

Christine is a Harvard Professor who has also been a vegan for 40 years. This of course is an overwhelmingly subjective piece, as her outlook is focused on the extreme, but I will grant that this piece is also subjective, however, its foundation is objective.

“Animals are sentient beings and some are capable of interacting with us, but on the other hand there they are, on our dinner plates, pulling our wagons, hunted by us, and made to fight with one another for our amusement. It just seems like an obvious moral issue,” - Korsgaard.

This is a great observation. Why are we as a society more forgiving to some animals, but to others we have no sense of empathy? Why can we race pigs around a track, but crack down on dog fighting? It is all societal aesthetic.

This is destroying our culture. We are rotting away. Look at Canada and their laws for on-demand euthanasia. Aesthetics and the value of life are being set by society. The lady in her 80’s with dementia is not supposed to be valued more than the 23 year old blue collar worker contributing to society, but in our society, he is! Capitalism has corrupted our view of human dignity. Produce, repeat, produce, repeat. Here I go down a path that is into the weeds, but I think this helps you understand where we are at.

If you have no faith in a higher power, or the creation story, then yes you are stuck. Korsgaard seems to distance herself from faith in God and the Genesis account.

This may take your breath away to realize, but we are the ones with dominion, and with that comes with rule. Remember, the Image of God is within our being. This is special and should not be sold for a lie, unless you are prepared to sell your birthright for a bowl of soup, or in our case, a leash and collar.

I am about to explore some really sad statistics that could crumble an entire lifetime of dominion by a single generation. According to pew research, 51% of all pet owners view their pets as equal to a human member of the family. My God, the pet has become human! 97% of pet owners say that their pets are “part of the family”. Sure, a part of the family, but not a member. My dog was seen as part of the family, but in no way was she human.

Again, a worse stat is always to follow.

For example, in one study, people were faced with a dilemma in which they could either save a human being or their pet dog, but not both, from being hit and killed by a bus. Under some circumstances, more than one-third of people surveyed chose to save their dog, leaving the human to his cruel fate. - psychology today

A human person is valued less than a dog by 33% of surveyed individuals. Preposterous.

Morality. What about morality?

Humans are moral in nature. Recently, there has been claims of just how objective that morality is, but we must not neglect the fact that there is some sort of moral code in us. Murder is wrong. We do not think it is ok to murder because of this moral code. Whether that is from my view of objectivity, or yours of subjectivity, we both (hopefully) think it wrong. Historically, (overall) humans have been pretty clear on the whole murder thing. What about when an animal murders another? Morally wrong? No. Animals are not moral. The Image of God makes us share in his morality, and there is only one unique recipient of this.

Souls. What about the souls? I mean maybe. I guess the animal could contain something like it, but not the same as me and you. One of the clearest ways to see this is the human soul’s attachment after being intimate. Animals were once the only (acceptable) species to have intercourse with the entire liter, but now humans are no different. No wonder we can’t draw the line between the two. We’ve taken the animal instinct to have sexual encounters with the multitudes, but do not realize our souls actually feel the impact.

In humans, for whom the brain is the largest sex organ, orgasm is inseparably linked to the workings of the mind…Sex can be used to facilitate self-transcendent experience. Having sex seduces lovers into dreaming dreams and making promises: Human sex engages the psyche, which, in turn, releases the human spirit. - Daniel A. Helminiak

Not one who has had sex is surprised by any of this.

Human exceptionalism is the belief that humans are superior quantitatively, distinct, and hold higher moral value than other species. Now, I think the Genesis account gives us ample evidence to support this claim, but do not think dominion means neglect or abuse the lower. Remember, God gives us rule even of our own bodies, but we must not abuse it. The Harvard Gazette has an article that links this religious human exceptionalism to ecological disaster. In the article titled ‘Human exceptionalism is at the root of the ecological crisis’, Kermit Pattison correlates the two. This “human superiority complex” has given the apex the mindset to neglect the things below. I agree that mass extinction, ecological crisis, and other mistreatments of the earth have been caused by humans, but it is not the religious point of view that it should be accepted because we have “dominion”.

One of the things I love about the Catholic Church is their focus on this topic. The Protestant church has really no concrete view on this, which makes the Harvard Gazette article possible. A mainstream American protestant view is one of superiority without any sort of limit on the environment. To no one’s surprise, most protestants are right leaning, so take the next few sentences granting me this. Recently, a hijack has taken place which spews some obscure take that you can’t be a republican, christian, and care for the planet. This is idiotic. They have let the Democrats have admiration for the planet, while they settle for saving babies in the womb. This is why the Catholic Church will find no habitation in American politics. No Catholic can claim a political party in America because favor is found in both, while displeasure encounters the same.

CCC The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)§373 states that "subduing" the earth is not arbitrary or destructive, but stewardship.

CCC §2418 states that "it is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly,

Just a few to show you what we are dealing with in regards to the church.

A closing note: Our love is God’s love.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1John 4:7-8

Love is what sets us apart from every creature crawling and flying. A theology of the body. This is the title of Pope John Paul II’s deep dive into our genetic make up. Free will allows us to love and gives our actions consequence. Every day we have the option to join into that love with God, or if you are lucky enough, another person in matrimony alongside that. Love described by Pope John Paul II as “free, total, faithful, and fruitful.” No animal has this faculty because their image does not reflect God’s. The trinity, our most prized and eccentric singularity regarding the Christian faith, guides the human in how to love. Man knows what love is and how it is supposed to operate because there is an image within them all that is slowly revealed like a polaroid, manifesting three persons whose love is shared eternally and incessantly.

No animal will ever have this magnanimous grace. You are superior, but remember,

‘‘the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.”

Peace be with you

William Bogdan

Leave a comment

Share