Animism and Anthropomorphism
To the rabbit, the wolf that is chasing and wants to eat it is evil. To the wolf, it is doing what it must to live, and to feed its pups. To kill and eat the rabbit is good. To an outside absolute perspective, everything is acting according to its nature, so it is good. That doesn't make the rabbit's perspective wrong, or the rabbit's right to flee for its life. That also is good.
It is the right and nature of all things to survive and perpetuate the life within. I eat the deer which eats the grass which grows on the grave of my ancestor who ate the deer's ancestors...and my ancestor is eaten by tiny things that make the soil that grows the grass.
The idea of a soul's worth being greater or lesser is a human question, based on an anthropocentric view.
Anthropocentrism= "Humans are the beings which have sentience, will, personality. Attributing sentience, will, personality to nonhuman animals, plants, winds, rocks, rivers is anthropomorphism."
Animism= "All things have sentience, will, personality. Attributing sentience, will, personality to only humans is anthropocentrism."
In an absolute external view (if there could be such a thing, perhaps God has such a view) everything is a flow over geological ages of existence. One human life/soul is a mote of dust floating in the sunbeam of eternity. But to that soul/life, its existence is naturally central.
To a species, its view is naturally central, thus anthropocentrism is also natural to us as a species. So anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism are natural and good as human views, but they are not the truth in an absolute worldsystemic view...or in a deercentric view or a wolfcentric view.
People talk about the end of the world and are frightened about it. Of course, the world will never end, but only transforms like a shapeshifter. And the reality is, if I step off a curb at the wrong time and am hit by a bus, the world HAS ended-- in my own view.
I will not go peacefully to death. I have almost died several times and I know I will go fighting my death, as insane as it is, and as natural as death is, I will gasp for every bit of air as I expire, trying to live just a second more. This is the way of all healthy things with enough life in them to want to preserve it. But death is inevitable for all living things of course.
It is the right and nature of all things to survive and perpetuate the life within. I eat the deer which eats the grass which grows on the grave of my ancestor who ate the deer's ancestors...and my ancestor is eaten by tiny things that make the soil that grows the grass.
The idea of a soul's worth being greater or lesser is a human question, based on an anthropocentric view.
Anthropocentrism= "Humans are the beings which have sentience, will, personality. Attributing sentience, will, personality to nonhuman animals, plants, winds, rocks, rivers is anthropomorphism."
Animism= "All things have sentience, will, personality. Attributing sentience, will, personality to only humans is anthropocentrism."
In an absolute external view (if there could be such a thing, perhaps God has such a view) everything is a flow over geological ages of existence. One human life/soul is a mote of dust floating in the sunbeam of eternity. But to that soul/life, its existence is naturally central.
To a species, its view is naturally central, thus anthropocentrism is also natural to us as a species. So anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism are natural and good as human views, but they are not the truth in an absolute worldsystemic view...or in a deercentric view or a wolfcentric view.
People talk about the end of the world and are frightened about it. Of course, the world will never end, but only transforms like a shapeshifter. And the reality is, if I step off a curb at the wrong time and am hit by a bus, the world HAS ended-- in my own view.
I will not go peacefully to death. I have almost died several times and I know I will go fighting my death, as insane as it is, and as natural as death is, I will gasp for every bit of air as I expire, trying to live just a second more. This is the way of all healthy things with enough life in them to want to preserve it. But death is inevitable for all living things of course.