This morning at break fast, Bro. Sedwick offered these words to us, they were offered after several of the brothers were questioning the superiority of humans over animals. The argument became so heated that the kitchen was depleted of biscuits, and I must add the these biscuits were yet baked ... you can imagine the current state of the dining room.
Bro. Sedwick:
"Potentiality. Humans possess the potential to be better than the state they find themselves. And the power that humans possess, self-awareness and all those traits that distance (elevates?) humans from other creatures, everything that I would say makes them "closer to God" -- created in God's image -- can be used for goodness as defined by Jesus, or can be used to empower the animal nature within all of us. The empowered animal nature coupled with our God-given self-awareness, results in we becoming human gods. All humans are faced daily with the dilemma of following God, or becoming little human gods. Humans are different from all other creatures, one way to describe it would be to use the biological hierarchy model, or the totem pole, or any such description that positions humans separate from all other creatures -- above? beside? under? -- we normally use 'above' because humans possess the traits to dominate other creatures, and we are taught (and we all learn through experience) that being powerful is preferable to being weak, for obvious reasons. But this 'positioning' is merely a description. We have the potential to dominate. But must we? No. I believe that Jesus has shown the better way, the way that acknowledges that humans have dominion over nature, AND teaches that that dominance brings with it great responsibility, and how we humans ultimately treat nature, treat all creatures (including humans), will determine if we are following God, or if we have forfeited our 'image of God' in order to become little human gods."
Transcribed by,
Bro. Bartleby
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