The squalor of the soul [03.05.02]
It is the belief of many that human beings possess something that distinguishes them from the animals, something ethereal and incorporeal, intangible but nevertheless existent, that bestows Homo sapiens with the ability to transcend their animalistic instincts and rise to the upper echelons of life's creatures, just below angels and God Himself on the grand totem pole of the universe. An opposable thumb? Nay. Far too pedestrian, too easily explained and documented. The something of which I speak, the quality that places humans high above the lesser creatures of the world in any self-devised hierarchical system, is, of course:
The soul.
Christians believe that it is the fingerprint of God, a divine imprint on the carefully crafted human form, left by the Creator as a mark of his empowerment. When one dies, it is the soul that escapes the decomposing flesh and populates Heaven, leaving the worldly body behind and living eternally as the pure essence of a person.
The soul is, allegedly, that which allows humans to distinguish right from wrong, to resist the urging of the id, the libido, the dark, dense jungle of the mind. Yet is it as effective as people of faith would like to believe?
Tell me: does any other species of animal kill its own out of spite, without reason, simply reveling in ending the lives of others? Do animals commit genocide, harbor prejudice, or allow the cancer of hatred to fester within them? Are animals obsessed with material goods, willing to rape, pillage, and plunder the earth to satisfy their own greed? Do the concepts of avarice or gluttony exist to animals? Likewise, does the soul truly protect humans from their own instincts? Do no humans succumb to the whispers of the subconscious, to the soft sibilance of the lizard mind deep inside? Are sex and sloth and self-preservation completely alien to people?
These are questions you must answer yourself; it is not my place to do so. Yet consider this: every other animal on the planet lives in harmony with nature and only kills to survive, when threatened or in need of sustenance. Mass murder is unknown to them. They know nothing of materialism, racism, sexism, sin, or covetousness. Humans ravish the earth, strip mine and fell forests, annihilate countless species for the sake of an interstate highway. In the name of religion or "civilization," humans have stifled and stamped out the lives or cultures of others. Humans slaughter millions of animals every year to feed the rich, yet allow the poverty-stricken to starve. Humans speak of justice, yet have oppressed. Humans fight for equity, yet are bigots. Humans claim to be superior creatures, "made in the image of God," yet do naught but condemn and destroy, feed off the earth as if they were parasites or viruses, use their institutions, especially religion, to justify innumerable atrocities.
Who, then, truly has the soul?
[Exit Orpheum.]
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