Mind you, I'm not saying that animals are void of all choice, To
affirm the latter would be to view them as robots or automatons. It
would be refusing to differentiate between the animals that entered the
Ark, and those that chose otherwise! The fallen state of so many of them
- the fruit of Adam's original transgression ~ is for all to see around
us. Sin is the most contagious disease and the whole of creation is
blighted by the sin of the first human couple. I'm too much of a realist
to ever deny that this fallen creation is 'red in both tooth and claw'.
I've confronted nothing less than altruism as well as vice amongst
several animals, both studied and encountered. Consequently, I cannot
agree with a past writer Dostoevski who implied that all animals are
innocent and void of sin. How blind to the reality of a fallen universe
could such a past philosopher become?
When little more than an infant, I asked my pet dog to release a baby
rabbit from its mouth. And, if ever a moral battle went on, it did with
my darling fox terrier! Indeed, when the rabbit was released and
scuttled off to Mummy, my admiration for our pet increased a hundred
fold. What is more, I equally know that Grey-friar's Bobby didn't just
return to blind Jocks's grave purely out of cupboard love. Nor do I
believe that, when the twin towers were struck in Manhattan, that a dog
went back in to the building to assist its master solely from a past
conditioning. I simply know that the more I learn about animals, the
more scientifically and philosophically we appear to have been deceived.
And now ~ only this month - the latest thing to upset the apple cart is
a dog that recognises words as brilliant as does a four-year-old child.
Wonders never cease! 'Animals frequently know far more than we care to
know!'
To any who say in one breath that animals are without sin; and in the
next breath that they are, frequently, more loyal and faithful than a
human, is obviously nonsensical. But then, such illogical reasoning is
not confined to a certain breed of animal lover, I see an equal
absurdity amongst those "banner of truth' Protestants whose theology
denies free will while awarding virtue and punishing vice! As for
animals, I was once severely bitten by a vile, unfriendly, hound
pampered and cosseted from its birth. And another, that had been
pitilessly reared and beaten without mercy, has bountifully blest me.
Consequently, I have no need to read what past philosophers or so
called Puritan reformers " or indeed Latin fathers - considered animals
to be. What a mixed up hotchpotch they were!. In biblical terminology I
am aware of 'horrendous beasts of prey who prowl stealthily by night'
and 'ready to pounce'. Yes, and of others 'who wait upon their God'. I'm
sure that - like humans - some will appear worthy of ending up with a
golden harp; while others an appropriate cast iron shovel! Yes,
Christian believers are not the only ones to reveal illogical
inconsistencies: animal activists who boast to be Vegan while feeding
Pussy with fish must also fall in to this category. So must those who
rescue a few Carnivorous beasts and then sacrifice loads of gentle
herbivores in order to feed the massive brutes!
More than once, another vegetarian who made no qualms at all about
partaking of dairy produce has criticized me for occasionally eating
fish! Well, Our Lord probably ate fish; so did St Francis! Indeed,
Brother Anthony preached to them, 'and they all sat up in an orderly
line, the smaller at the front and the larger behind them'. Methinks, If
you want to believe that, you'll believe anything! Nevertheless, big
fish are eating little fish all day long: it's primarily their
all-consuming pastime. Well, I can logically say that for each one I've
eaten I've been the means of saving a whole host of smaller ones! Yet -
in marked contrast - such reasoning could hardly be made out for
perpetrating the dairy industry. For surely what we do to cows is far
less excusable! Do you wonder why I prefer to drink a pint of good old
ale? It hardly goes down well with the Mothers Union: pushing me to have
a cup of tea 'respectably' whitened with cow milk. Yes, and usually
accompanied by home made scones, baked in 'old style' slaughterhouse
lard, and covered with 'luscious' cholesterol fillings of butter!
Go on to
A Spiritual Stirrer Preferable To A
Spineless Jellyfish
Return to Summer 2004 Issue
Animal Padre's
