After today's discussion, I was left debating the religious 'ensouling' of humans, and not animals. First, I assume this particular issue sets aside other religions that may regard both humans and animals as ensouled. With that, I also assume that this is limited to the Christian theology.
I must admit that I have little to no (more no than little) understanding of Christian theology, and I've read snippets of the Bible here and there, but never from beginning to end. So please - correct me if I'm wrong.
God originally created the angels, then he created people. Why?
The most complete (not necessarily correct) answer that I've ever gotten is that God created people because he realized that the angels could not be Good -- they had no choice. (Can't be truly Good if you don't have the option of being Bad.) People were given souls, which gave them free will. I shall assume for the moment that the 'big events' of our lives are, indeed, pre-destined. This, I think, gives us free will over the littler aspects of life. (It's the little things in life that really count, no?) Reactions to the stupid stuff of everyday life add up to create the larger portion of one's experience, choices, and general life.
Virtue is not decided in one grand moment, but over the course of one's life.
So, assuming that humans were ensouled by God and given free will over the (at least) smaller choices in our everyday lives, and that humans are 'special' or 'beloved' over the animals -- we are given the choice to be good or bad with every action and reaction. We are given more choices to fuck up! ...and animals, as far as we know, are not.
Methinks this should tell us something.
I agree with the idea that humans are merely stewards. However, on this occasion, there is no higher boss to come in and punish us for mis-management. (At least not in this life, under the guise of Christianity.)
But the best managers are the ones that do not require an external threat of punishment to do the job. Indeed, the ones that 'make it' (speaking in terms of current society) are the ones that can manage themselves, while managing the job. Self discipline and all that.
And we seem to be lacking in that.
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Of course, my view is that the purported ensoulment of humans is simply an attempt to implicate the gods in our (pathetic) efforts to reject our own animality.
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