Animal Consciousness
© 2000 by Sid Galloway
Ex-Zookeeper, now
my brother's keeper.
Day Five of Creation
Living Souls
(Nephesh Chayee)
True Story (Above) of
"Wild" Lioness Adopting a Baby Oryx
Three times in Genesis chapter one, the LORD lead Moses to use the Hebrew term "bara" to describe a part of His creative process. The term is only used in the Bible of God's action, and it means to create something new and unique, out of nothing. The first usage is in day one when God "created" space, time, matter, and energy out of nothing. The first Law of Thermodynamics was established. For the next four days, the LORD merely reorganizes and masterfully shapes the matter and energy into awesomely complex systems, including the organic machines we call plants.
Then the second use of "bara" is during day five, when the LORD "created" "living souls" (nephesh chayee) to fill the hydrosphere and the atmosphere. On this day, He created a brand new thing. Beyond the soul-less machinery of plants, God on this day created conscious beings who were able to relate to Him and one another. This phrase, nephesh chayee, is identical to that used of man later in Scripture.
However, man is NOT an animal. The third use of "bara" is with the creation of man. Man, according to Scripture, is more than a nephesh chayee. He was created as a steward to care for creation. He was personally created by the LORD and received the breath of life breathed directly from God. Man was a brand new, unique being. Even so, the LORD's animals are living, conscious souls, who think, feel, and choose. The fact that they do so to a limited degree compared to man, does not justify mistreatment of them. Why is this fact so important?
God's creation was designed to be a reflection of His nature and character of agape love and cooperation, not competition and survival of the fittest. So the animals were created for man to care for them, with the love of their Creator. But now that we are sinful, hardened and desensitized to our own selfish tendencies, we cannot see the tarnished image we present to our children when we treat God's other creatures with cold indifference or worse.
** The following is from our
sermon notes on Gen 3:14-19:
"The Father's Corrective Curse"
- Terminal Entropy, is the consequence man and the whole of creation must endure. The LORD has been gradually withdrawing His hand from this sinful world, increasing separation from God who holds all things together (Heb 1). He alone is self-existent. As soon as man sinned, and our Holy God started His withdrawal, the creation began to "naturally" fall apart. The creation is not naturally self-existent. It is dependent upon God for its existence.
The rebellion of Adam (Gen 3) and the subsequent escalation of "entropy" (disorder, death, & decay - dysfunctional 2nd law of thermodynamics) is the reason for imperfections as well as the selfish competition, violence, pain, suffering, fear, and death we see in the "wild kingdom" now. * The second law of thermodynamics was functional before Adam sinned, such as in the process of digestion, chemical processes, etc., but death and disease were not.
After sin, separation from God, and the flood (Gen 9), God then gave provisional permission for man to kill and eat the animals. The flood destroyed most of the existing plant fauna, which are merely organic machines without soul life (nephesh chayee). So God gave provisional permission to eat the physical flesh of animals (without their blood, which represents their soul life - Gen 9; Lev 17).
** See "Commentary on the Old Testament", by Keil and Delitzsch.
Even then, God commanded that man respectfully honor the animal's soul life (nephesh chayee), represented by its blood, by draining it out and either bringing it to the altar if it was a sacrifice, or burying it if it was the result of hunting for food (Lev 17). Satan the great deceiver has conned many Christians into hardening their hearts to the reality of God's concern for animal life that thinks, feels, and suffers pain, fear, terror, and even despair. Then Lucifer encourages cult groups, and pagan cultures to recognize this truth to the shame of Christians. Just as the feminist movement is a reaction against the failure of men (even some Christian men) to love their wives as Christ does the church, so also the environmental movement is in part a reaction against the failure of man (yes even Christians) to be a good steward of God's earth and a shepherd - rather than a fallen wolf - to God's thinking, feeling creatures.
God hates violence, pain, suffering, and death, even of the animals. Isaiah 11 and 65 foretell of the day when He will end the current state of the wild kingdom, and return it to its Edenic character of peaceful, harmonious cooperation without competition and survival of the strongest and meanest.
Remember that Gen 1 uses the term "bara" (to create a new thing out of nothing) at three points:
* at the creation of space/time/matter/energy
* at the creation of animal soul life (nephesh chayee)
* at the personal creation of human soul life (nephesh chayee)The curse also parallels these three categories of bara creation:
* the ground and plants with thorns and thistles
* the serpent and collaterally all of animal life
* mankind- The Bible says a day is coming, The Day of Judgment, when absolute entropy will occur, and the very elements of the universe will decay into a massive radioactive flame-out:
2 Peter 3:1-13
"Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both
of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), 2 that
you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the
holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the
Lord and Savior, 3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come
in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and
saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from
the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they willfully
forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old,
and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which
the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by
the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, do not forget
this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward
us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come
to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,
in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and
the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the
works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since
all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening
the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens
will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with
fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise,
look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee:
Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.
In the mean time, check
out the following related links:
http://www.soulcare.org/General/articles.htm
For scientific and anecdotal evidence of animal souls see the following books.
Note however that most of the author's are evolutionists. The ironic thing is that the amazingly complex and convoluted dynamics of animal behavior are some of the strongest evidences against the theory of gradual evolution by chance, time, and mutation.
- Animal Minds, by Donald R. Griffin. 1992. University of Chicago Press. (This new book draws on two decades of research into animal behavior.
- The Parrot's Lament: And Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, & Ingenuity,
by Eugene Linden. 1999. Linden is an award winning science writer. His previous books focused on technical research in animal cognition and affect, but this latest work highlights animal interpersonal capacities (animal to animal, and animal to human) in a way that reveals the full flavor of their relational souls.
Click Here for More visual evidence for animal souls ........
