Today’s Scripture Reading (June 4,
2015): Genesis 19
The research
is in - animals are conscious beings. That is, they have at least some idea of
self. The argument has been raging for centuries, and even with this
declaration the argument is likely to continue to rage for a while yet, but for
some the question has finally been answered – animals, especially mammals and
birds, are conscious beings. Who knew? The great philosopher Rene Descartes
argued the exact opposite throughout all of his life. It was his justification
for his own extreme cruelty toward animals. Descartes strongly believed that
the only conscious species on the planed was man.
There are
several problems with trying to figure out whether or not animals are conscious
beings. The biggest of the obstacles is the simple fact that we do not share a
language with the animals with which we share this planet. But the other
surprise from research is that it is not that the animals aren’t talking – we are
just not part of, or understanding, the conversation. And one of the biggest
talkers in a multiple ways might be the elephant. (Other than physical size I
am not sure that I would have guessed that.)
Animals can also
make friends. This is probably not a big surprise if we are talking about dogs,
dolphins and chimpanzees (okay, let’s throw in cats for the cat lovers that
walk among us), but research has also shown that cows have the ability to make
best friends, and suffer from stress disorders when their best friends are
removed from their presence. All of this would seem to lead us to the
conclusion that they do have a picture of self – and, therefore, they have a
sense of consciousness.
But maybe
one of the most surprising elements is that there is some evidence with some
animals that the premise of the Planet of the Apes might be right. Animals have
both the ability to learn and the ability to teach. And they may be able to
discern a limited idea of right and wrong, as that might be defined by their
community. But all of this leads us to some interesting questions. For
instance, if self exists then does peer pressure also exist in the lives of an
animal? I mean, if it is conscious of the idea of self, does it understand the
community expectation of self beyond the punishment reward system that we
impose on them when we attempt to teach them something. And if peer pressure
does exist, can the animals resist it – or is it possible that these things
only exist in the human world. What exactly are the conditions that have to be
present, in an animal or in its human cousins, to understand the difference
between what society expects and what morality demands. My suspicion is that we
are the only ones that have to wrestle through these kinds of decisions.
It was the kind of decision that Lot was faced with as the
visitors entered Sodom. As it was with his Uncle Abraham, there is no
indication that Lot understood who these visitors were. But Lot did understand
what was going to happen to the visitors if he did not extend his protection to
them in a city where simply not belonging was a crime. It seems that Lot had
learned well under the teaching of his Uncle, and he made the same hospitality
choices that Abraham had made in the hill country overlooking Sodom, but this
time Lot’s hospitality was offered in the presence of a peer pressure that demanded
something very different. Lot may have been living in Sodom but the way that Lot
lived his life, and the decisions that he made, he struggled to keep the same
as when he was living with his Uncle. It would have been easy for Lot to wash
his hands of the visitors after they had turned down his hospitality, and let
them go and sleep in the town square but that was not the way that he was
raised. And the action that he took now would have made his Uncle Abraham proud
– resisting the pull of the crowd in order to simply do what was right.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis
20
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