Kormt says:
"'Man came from here; and to this, in the end, he must return.'" (p. 196)
This is a religious statement. We will return to Eden, Africa, Ethiopia... In this story, it is highly unlikely that mankind will ever return to Earth.
Jorun points out that not one atom of his body had been from Earth before he arrived. His people had adapted to Fulkhis and no longer belonged on Earth. Kormt replies that it is the form, not the atoms, that matter and that the form came from Earth. However, bodies will change in different environments, especially if they are artificially adapted. One of James Blish's Adapted Men says:
"'...it was also a very old idea on the Earth that basic humanity inheres in the mind, not in the form.'"
-James Blish, "Watershed" IN Blish, The Seedling Stars (London, 1972), p. 181-192 AT p. 191.
Aristotle called the soul the form of the body.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And in Anthony Boucher's story "Balaam," a Catholic priest and Jewish rabbi were discussing what where the special characteristics that makes a man a man, whatever his physical forms might be, human or non human. The priest, called "Mule" by his friends, quoted from a catechism: "Man," he recited, "is a creature composed of body and soul, and made in the image and likeness of God." Next, Mule said: "The likeness to God is chiefly in the soul." Again: "All creatures have some resemblance to God inasmuch as they exist. Plants and animals resemble Him insofar as they have life..." Next: "...but none of these creatures is made in the image and likeness of God. Plants and animals do not have a rational soul, such as man has, by which they might know and love God. Lastly: "The soul is like God because it is a spirit having understanding and free will and is destined..." (THE COMPLEAT BOUCHER, by Anthony Boucher, NESFA Press, 1999).
These bald, out of context quotes from "Balaam" hardly does justice to the story. But the rabbi and the priest concluded intellect and free will are the essential characteristics of all rational beings with souls, human or nonhuman.
Ad astra! Sean
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