Is mankind an animal like any beast of the field, or does he possess a supernatural God-given qualit
- Emmanuel Isaiah Smith
- Apr 5, 2017
- 1 min read
In the book of Genesis, chapter 2:5, the Prophet Moses writes that after God created the heavens, the earth, and the beasts of the field, that there was not a man in the earth to till the ground. Verse 7 states that God later created man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living breathing soul. This indicates, at least according to scripture, that mankind is distinct from the beasts of the field. Man further appears to have the ability to reason and comprehend on an exponentially higher level than the beasts of the field. Man exhibits many of the same natural tendencies that animals do, namely other mammals; however, man’s ability to communicate, reason, and act in vastly superior capacities than other mammals brings into question how and why man developed these characteristics in such an obvious and powerful way. The Bible verses previously quoted speak of a “soul,” which is an intangible quality that is not described as something that the beasts of the field have. While not proven, the concept of a soul is something that mankind seems to identify with, and some people in religious cultural traditions even speculate that this intangible quality is what puts human faculties over and above the faculties of the beasts of the field.
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