THE MAMMAL IN HUMAN ANIMAL

THE MAMMAL IN HUMAN ANIMAL

Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua

 

Some scholars have opined that living beings could be divided into animals and vegetation. If we accept this opinion, it means that the human being is also an animal. The difference is that the human being is a rational animal with spiritual orientation to share in the divine nature. However, the traits of the irrational animal could be exhibited by some human beings who have no control over their reasons and temperaments. As long as some human beings could act with animal instincts, it remains true that both brutes and humans probably belong to the ancestral family. Humanity is in contact with the external universe hence the human person has a close relationship with the entire creation. The human being has some vegetative elements such as the growing of nails and hair that could be cut to size like flowers. Some characteristics are common to humans, brutes and vegetation such as growth, respiration, reproduction, sensitivity and others. Plants turn towards light to grow properly (photosynthesis) while the roots grow towards water for nourishment (Hydrotropism). 

 

Evolutionary theory affirms that Humans and Chimpanzees evolve from a common ancestor. For the philosopher, the human person is rational with a will to discern between good and evil. For the creationist theory, the human being is directly created by God. He has the divine nature infused in him hence he could control and tame the wild animal that is physically stronger. In metaphysics, all animals are categorized as living beings because “to be” is to exist. Every being exist for a reason. The major concern of the brutes is survival. This entails feeding, attack and self-defence. The wild animal has no mission and vision. They live to eat and they eat to survive. The animals have no formal training. Even the dog cannot be trained to a point of communicating like human beings. On the other hand, a human animal who live solely with the dogs without interaction with human beings could behave like a dog. 

 

Children acquire language through active demonstration and repetition of sounds. The brain of the child gets adjusted to the sounds in the first six years with the cognitive capacity. A child easily learns the language of his environment with the attendant culture and tradition. This is why a child who grows with wild animals in the jungle could behave like the savages. Love begets love just as a child who never experience parental love does not understand the pains he is inflicting on others. Pain is normal for a child who has not parental care and love and does not feel any remorse while tormenting a person. The characteristics of the brute mammal for survival are the passion for food and sex. This is perhaps why a kidnapper who has co-habited from birth with animals only hunger for ransom and sexual assault on women. In potency, the rational capacity is infused in the human person but the actualization of the latent potentials depends on the formation that is acquired through contact with people who value life with a mission, vision and hope. 

 

The essence of governance is to create an enabling environment for the citizens to aspire for greatness and build hope through self-actualization. This hope for the future is provided by a healthy society with a functional system and structure. This calls for an ideal society, environment and family that are conducive for human formation to tame the beast in the human person. Those who do not have access to credible human formation resort to the use of force and powerinstead of creative relationships. Education enables the mammal in man to be controlled and conquered. The stages of development of the human person are infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood and old age. “Early child development (ECD) encompasses physical, socio-emotional, cognitive and motor development from the ages of one to eight. Every child has the right to truth.

The child grows by processing information available through vision, audition, listening and language. As the child develops, he learns the value of truth. In the words of Albert Einstein, the child grows into an adult who should look for what is and not for what he thinks should be. Truth prevents hate and war whereas ignorance puts a person at the level of the savage mammal. Einstein thinks that the truth will free us from the animal world. This is because energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another. According to Isaac Newton, there are no exceptions to the laws of nature. They apply to all matter and energy. Human beings are matter and energy, thus you and all humans are governed by the same laws. For Henry David Thoreau, it's not what you look at that matters; it's what you see.You have to know true life to know your true self. Very often, we do not see things the way they are; we see things the way we are.

 

To objectively perceive reality, there is need for formation and reformation. This is why a country like Nigeria should make education a priority. This form of education should be all embracing in a way and manner that even nomadic education should be given a serious priority to change the orientation of children who have lived with cows since birth. Otherwise the herdsmen would continue to value cows more than human beings. The street children are human beings who deserve human dignity. It is injustice to leave them at the level of the Old Stone Age. They too have the right to education which any government could give freely for the sanity and security of the nation. Truth should not be hidden from these children for fear that they might gain their freedom and liberty to self-determination instead of being used as thugs and terrorists. Truth has the power to transform a mortal person into an immortal spiritual being. According to Winston Churchill, the truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, only truth can make us truly human. 

 

I doubt if any religion forbids education in arts, science and technology. Islam is known to have had a great influence on Western Civilization. Islamic scientists and scholars contributed immensely to the renaissance. Because Islam values child development, the Holy Quran says, “Kill not your children because of poverty” (Quran 6:151). One may say further that Islam forbids the institution of street children because a man is like a shepherd of his own family and he is responsible for them (Bukhari and Muslim). The first message to the Prophet of Islam is “Iqra - read” (Quran 96: 1-5)! God teaches the human person what he does not know through human agents. The philosophers talk about infused and acquired knowledge. The parents are the first teachers to awake in the child the potentials for self-awareness. The child takes to the school the foundation that had been laid by the parents. The Religious teachers assist the child to grow in vertical relationship with God and horizontal relationship with fellow human beings. 

 

In the Bible, the Sages counsel: “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). The bible expressed clearly the role of fathers in parenting: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 31:12-13). Paul was advising the parents not to allow the children to degenerate to the level of animals. Anger is emotions that can make a person behave like a wild animal. The sages recommend discipline to tame the beast in the child. Do not hold back discipline from the child, although you strike him with the rod, he will not die (Proverbs 23:13).Every family is happy to see the children grow gracefully in strength and wisdom. Saint John expressed this sentiment in his third letter. “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth (3 John 1:4). To create a normal human society, we appeal to government at all levels to promote education and provide jobs to graduates to tame or eradicate the mammal in human animal. May God assist us to have a society that is peaceful and secure! 

 

Rev. Fr. Cornelius Omonokhua is the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) (nirec.ng@gmail.com)