"We fell into each other's arms and praised God with many loud violations of His third commandment." (pp. 116-117)
This, of course, is another Biblical reference. Some of us might think that we know what the Ten Commandments are until we are required to recite them. Which is the third? Fortunately nowadays we can google and possibly find that the subject is more complicated than we had expected.
Where should we look for ultimate truth? Apart from philosophical enquiry and reflection, I now resort to meditation and to what is said by some of its practitioners, not to a scriptural account of a revelation to Moses.
Nicholas van Rijn is content to leave it to theologians to say whether aliens have souls because:
"'They get paid to decide.'" (p. 129)
I pay someone to fix my car engine but not to answer philosophical or spiritual questions. Each of us surely must engage with questions about "souls"? Every human being is a subject of consciousness.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
In the Catholic Church theologians work for the Church--not the other way about. That is, their reasonings start from a bedrock of what is believed to be divinely revealed or defined truths. Meaning any theological reasonings deviating from orthodoxy will be rejected--sometimes after long and passionate debate and controversy. That has been a hugely major reason why Catholic Christianity has preserved doctrinal and ecclesiastical consistency and unity.
Ad astra! Sean
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