Adindu Onukwue
Introduction
Different Schools have looked into and come up with different conclusions on the issue of man’s superiority over the other animals.
Some Dialectics Schools insists that it is man’s ability to form cognate words and therefore communicate in speech and languages that make them different and therefore superior to other animals.
Their critics however oppose this by saying that of course animals communicate in their own words. That we do not comprehend and understand them does not mean it does not exist. Anyway some animals like dolphins and parrots even attempt human words and sentences.
Another School says that it is because human beings can rationalize and therefore can differentiate between right and wrong that is the exhibition of their superior intelligence over the animals.
If the differentiation between right and wrong is the exhibition of intelligence, then the whole concept is flawed as no animal has been known to mate with another of the same gender and such other acts of perversion like some humans do.
However, it is the economists view on this issue that attracted a lot of positive responses. This is especially from the Christians as it seems to agree with the divine instruction to possess and subdue the earth. The economists had come up with the view that it is man’s tendency towards accumulation, preservation of materials for use tomorrow, the concept of materialism that makes us totally different and quite superior to the other living organisms of this earth. They say that it is under this concept that terms like inheritance, will, saving, banking, preservation, hoarding and even materialism come.
We agree with the economists. However, we insist that this human desire to accumulate and preserve have now gone out of control, it has degenerated to raw greed. It is now avarice that drives man into thievery, looting, arson, wars, accumulation, hoarding, killing, genocide and every other kinds of inhuman acts and self degradation. It is man’s pecuniary nature that makes it different from other animals.
I see this as the reason for the tenth commandment in the Christian Bible.
THOU SHALTH NOT COVET —.
It is like a knell. A warning.
Our Lord and Master JESUS CHRIST reiterated this in the sermon on the mount, when HE advised us not to worry over tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient unto each day is the evil thereof.
And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord. It shall not be treasured nor laid up, for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficient and for durable clothing.
Our Lord and Master JESUS CHRIST knows that man’s intense desire to possess can be motivated by anything and can also result to anything, HE therefore warns the Christian to Beware of covetousness.
The Holy Bible describes this man’s intense desire as lust, while some more pedestrian paradigm describe it as a craving. The economists assert that this man’s materialistic desire is insatiable. It is therefore not a need but a want. It is not a natural habit. It is an addiction. A lust beyond satisfaction or satiety.
This man’s desire has over time escalated to a point that it does not care any more one way or the other who gets hurt in its bid to attain this unattainable satisfaction. Therefore it has become a cause for real worry as this situation starts manifesting in the most moral based institution given to man by GOD Himself, the most sacred institution man has been blessed with: The Christian Church.
The table seem to have been turned, where the Bible teaches us to exercise Charity, that is to give, we rather demand and take. As much as we are taught to ask and it shall be given unto us, it however becomes derogatory when we are busy asking from the pulpit for ourselves forgetting that the whole concept of Christianity is to extend charity to the poor and needy. The Bible specifically said “— to the widows and orphans in their period of affliction —” That is true religion.
When a rich Pastor continues to receive from the rich of his church to the detriment, neglect and impoverishment of the “poor amongst us” then that is tantamount to material accumulation. The lust for material things as the Bible described it.
We are sheep. When sheep are moving, if you place a stick on the ground in front of them, the leading sheep will jump over it. In rhythm, all the following sheep will jump over the stick. If you however remove the stick before some of the sheep have reached the spot where it is, when they get there they will still jump, stick or no stick. One may call this silly, but I call it blind followership. This is what Christianity is all about, dedicated followership. Total unquestioning trust. That is faith.
Christianity is not a medium for self aggrandizement nor for personal enrichment. It is neither politics, business nor even tradition. It is neither a vocation nor a carrier. It is not a temporary adventure nor a venture. It is a life exercise with a hope of an eventual spiritual transition to heaven.
Some of us are devout Christians. Our devotion is such that a little push and we will topple into fanaticism. We are watching our leaders and following them without questions. That is faith.
These ones therefore should be careful how Christianity is expressed in the presence of the sheep so as not to lead them into temptation and subsequently sin.
Is Christianity therefore self denial?
Is Christianity synonymous to poverty?
What is a Christian’s relationship to wealth and riches?
What is the scriptures general stand on materialism?
Does money really answer all things?
These are really deep questions, for in the present dispensation of things in the world, a man is dead without money. The greater solution to life’s numerous, ever increasing and ever pressing circumstances is money.
No matter what you do or where you turn, the need for money is always there and glaring. Men travel thousands of miles and resort to all sorts of acts and activities in search of money. Man has virtually overturned the world, invented all sorts of things, encountered every kind of unimaginable and inconceivable situations and circumstances all because of money. We have braved all sorts of odds, resorted to all sorts of nefariousness and engaged in every kind of ventures in our dire and desperate urge to acquire, possess, accumulate and stock pile money.
Yet the Holy Book teaches us that this love of money is the root of ALL evil.
So we come back to our question, “Does money answer ALL things?” The catch word here is ALL.
Job 27:19 – 23 The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered – – –
Adindu Onukwue has published lots of works writing under the pseudonym Chris Dahi.
If man’s over superiority over other species is based on his ability to accumulate and save wealth which when the practice gets out of hand becomes a sin before the Lord then he is in no way smarter than certain animals because animals that live in snowy regions accumulate and store away in the snow but they never run afoul of The Almighty by amassing more than they need.
You are quite right. Like you said, the animals only horde what they need. They do not accumulate for posterity.