Brains! Brains!
Use your brains to help us. Your delicious brains
Mom B sent this link to me and it is very FU-News worthy.
JIMMY AKIN.ORG: Theology Of The Living Dead
I think a good method for determining if a zombie falls into category 4 is how it is killed. If it can be killed by severing the spinal column, or by causing severe nervous system damage, then this would seem to indicate that it is being animated in the "normal" way by some soul. However, if a disembodied limb that has no connection to the nervous system can still move and attack, this might indicate that the zombie is being controlled by some telekinetic being or a drug or technology that induces muscle contractions. (Remember that one DS9 episode where the Ferengi reanimate the dead Dominion officer by placing electrodes on the muscles required to make him walk?)
This all brings up the very interesting topic: which category do the Undead race in World of Warcraft fall into? What is the proper response off the other races of Azeroth towards the undead?
I submit that the Undead fall into the first category of possessing a human soul that is re-animating them after death. This is most evident in that the Undead don't lose their memory after death. They still have full awareness of their life, and also maintain the same disposition and personality (albeit with a darker twist) as their pre-dead selves.
Of course this only applies to the Forsaken undead. The undead plague of Warcraft III is said to be mindless slaves, in which case they are probably just being reanimated by some magical force and have no free will.
That being said, it would seem that the goal to wipe out all the undead (essentially comitting genocide against them) pursued by certain other peoples of Azeroth, such as the Scarlet Crusade, would be immoral. Since each Forsaken is in command of a rational will, they can choose whether or not they want to participate in the undead's goal of killing all living races of Azeroth. To indiscrimately kill every undead, regardless of allegiance to this goal would be immoral.
Umm...not sure I believe in zombies. Or in aliens. Speaking of aliens, they are an interesting concept in light of Christian thought though, because if there are aliens, they have to be:
ReplyDelete1) fallen rational beings redeemed by Christ through His earthly sacrifice (accepting that His sacrifice is universal and timeless and eternal)
2) fallen rational beings NOT redeemed by Christ
3) Unfallen rational beings not needing to be redeemed by Christ
4) irrational beings
This begs the question: do we accept that rational beings are made in the image and likeness of God? And if so, then aliens of types 1-3 need not have human form to have been made in God's image; all they need is rationality. But if that is so, what about the angels? They are rational beings, but they have no form. And what does the fact of Christ's incarnation say? Christ was and is Man as well as God, so if there are non-man aliens, where does that leave them? At a lower rung on the creature ladder?
If aliens are of type 1, is it plausible that they are probably human, just living in a different location in the vast universe?
If aliens are of type 2, would that make them fallen angels, or similar to the fallen angels--perhaps angels banished not to hell, but to remote planets? (This is sounding ridiculous. But it's fun.)
If aliens of type 3 exist, then that means what, that they are similar to unfallen angels? That would mean that they are above us in the food chain.
Personally, type 4 aliens would prove uninteresting, I think, unless they were cute and cuddly, like tribbles...
All in all, if aliens exist, they have to have been created by God, rational or not. If they are rational, they have the ability to reason and to choose. It is reasonable to think that if aliens are rational, they must choose or not choose God, their creator (unless He chose not to reveal Himself to them, which would be most unloving and uncharacteristic of the God called Love). Therefore they must be fallen or unfallen (which basically means, do they know evil or not?). If they are fallen, are they redeemed? If not, are they damned?
I don't think I believe in aliens. It's too complicated to fit them into theology. And as for killing them, well, that question will take another brain, and I don't have any spares.
But what I really want to know is whether it's ok to kill alien zombies. I can't seem to find that paragraph in my catechism. Oh sure, you think it's a stupid question now, but as we start to explore and conquer other planets, there's a real possibility it could become a pressing issue. It's better to deal with it now than wait until lives depend on the answer. Fortunately, socially-conscious filmmakers are already bringing these issues to the public attention through such morally-relevant films as Doom and Resident Evil.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... the only zombies I know would be the "evil dead" variety, which clearly indicates from recorded history that body part or parts can have a mind/will of their own and act accordingly. All this is evident in these documentaries:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083907/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092991/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106308/
As to the questions of aliens, everyone knows they don't act with a rational soul, they just feed and breed. Unless, of course, they are cross mutated with humans. I've seen Alien Resurection I know what I'm talking about.
Oo! I get to correct Cari's grammar!
ReplyDeleteIt should be This raises the question: do we accept that rational beings are made in the image and likeness of God? and not This begs the question: do we accept that rational beings are made in the image and likeness of God?
To "beg the question" is a term used in formal logic to refer to an argument that assumes as true the thing it is trying to prove.
Read more:
Common Errors in English
End "Beg the Question" abuse now!
Yeah Joe, but I still beat you and Tom on that VB test sophomore year (your jr year).
ReplyDeleteWait... Joe is correcting someone else's grammar? Here's a quiz for you (fill in the blanks):
ReplyDelete1. If you eat both those burritos, _________ going to regret it in about 4 hours.
A) your
B) you're
C) the carpool is
2. (Select the appropriate word for each blank) _________ parking _________ Lexus over _________ under that aviary, the morons.
A) their
B) there
C) they're
umm... back to aliens... I have to agree that they don't really fit into theology as we know it (although C.S. Lewis did a pretty good job in his Space Trilogy). One argument I heard recently for the possibility of life on other planets, from a Catholic, was that it's arrogant to think that we are the only sentient species around -- that all the empty reaches of space are just that -- completely empty, there purely for our viewing pleasure. I can't help but think, why is that arrogant? What's wrong with believing that God enjoyed creating so much that he made a huge universe? When's the last time you picked up an Audubon Society guidebook? Think about it -- why are there 16 zillion kinds of birds, or bugs? The simplest answer -- God had fun making them. It's no surprise He'd want to make quiggly-illions of stars too, even ones we can't see. I would think that the knowledge that we are alone in a vast universe of beauty would inspire one to humility and gratitude, not arrogance. I was just reading Psalm 8 the other day -- it's beautiful, especially vv. 3-8:
ReplyDelete"When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?
Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea."
Hm, even though aliens aren't mentioned, do you suppose they could be included in man's dominion? Boy, all those invading & conquering aliens movies have got it wrong!
Zombies aren't mentioned either -- unless they are counted with either men or beasts. If zombies are men, then they would share in that dominion and it would be wrong to kill them at all... so you better watch out.
Poor aliens. No love. =(
ReplyDelete~RlrlrlRLRLLRLGRLGRLGlglglglgl!~
When I was a freshman at FU, during orientation, they made us read some essay or something and then put us in groups to talk about it. Most groups were done in about 45 minutes to an hour, but I got stuck with Prof. Engles-Doyle (or whatever her name was) and she kept us around for 2 and a half hours. After the first ten minutes, she exceeded my attention span, so I drifted off. Periodically she'd call on me to ask my opinion (being the only guy in the group) and I'd have to make something up. One thing I made up actually sounded pretty good to me in retrospect.
ReplyDeleteWe were talking about education and a liberal education being "freeing" or some such thing. I was probably thinking about Star Wars or space ships or something at the time, so I tied the topic into astronomy.
One thing I've always thought about: why did God create the Universe? I mean, why did he have to create the whole thing if all humans need is earth? How does a galaxy 13 billion light-years from Earth affect me?
Well, there are 2 facts here:
1) God chose to create that galaxy
2) He gave us the intellect to find it and study it.
If you believe that their are no coincidences and only providence, then a logical conclusion is: God wants us to study and learn about His creation. I don't think he gave us an intellect capable of such discovery if he wanted us to sit in front of the TV watching Simpsons reruns all day.
Anyways, I think I tied all this back to the topic of education with the point that if we accept this, then education shouldn't be approached from the angle of learning only what you need to get a good job. Education is designed to expand the intellect to the furthest capacity that God created it for.
Thus, aliens are not required to exist. The universe has a point, even a purpose for man, regardless of whether or not there are any other inhabitants.
Oh, and my thoughts on extra terrestrial life? I don't believe rational aliens exist elsewhere, but I would be very surprised if there was no alien flora, fauna, or bacterial life elsewhere in the universe (some day we may be able to study it). There has, after all, been evidence of microscopic life on mars.