MIND
AND SOUL
by
Antonio C. Antonio
January
8, 2014
QUESTION: Cultural Adaptation… Are human beings really
the most adaptive creatures on earth?
I
agree that human beings are really the most adaptive creatures on
earth. Aside from not wanting to abdicate the superiority of my kind, it
is unthinkable to imagine other animal species dominating man. Man has
managed to adapt to different environmental factors (good or bad) and still
remain on top of the food chain for two compelling reasons:
First, he has
a mind and a brain. The brain is an organ of soft nervous tissue
contained in the skull of vertebrates which functions as a coordinating center
of sensations and intellectual and nervous activities. The brain mass of
man evolved to be more sizeable than other animals and, therefore, increased
his capacity for adaptive behavior. Rick Potts, the director of the Human
Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural
History, said: “The evolution of the brain is the most obvious example
of how we evolve to adapt. But in modern era, we know that in the human
genome there are all kinds of interactions that allow human organisms to have
plasticity --- the capacity to adjust is itself an evolved
characteristic. Man has two key advantages, our brains and our capacity
for culture.” But it does not end there. More than man
having material brain is his possession of a mind… the element of man that
enables him to be aware of his environment. Man’s mind gives him the
capacity to think, feel and the faculty of consciousness and
innovativeness. Although other species in the animal kingdom also have
brains, only man has a mind.
Second,
he has a soul and a spirit. The spirit is the immaterial part of a human
being or animal which is regarded as immortal. Pre-historic man
considered biotic and even abiotic elements in the world as having
spirits. Upland dwellers consider the forests (flora and fauna) as
possessing a spirit. Developed countries of today have people who
appropriate real property to establish pet cemeteries… why?; because they
regard their pet animals as having spirits too. If this is an accepted
truth that the forest and domesticated animals have spirits, what would make
man different then? The difference lies in man’s possession of a
soul. In the context that a soul, like a spirit, is immortal, man now
believes that his spiritual life transcends his physical life and that his
spiritual life will account for his physical life… the strongest influence of
religion on man. It is for this reason that man now establishes his
ethical standards and develops his code of conduct to be both ideal while still
in his physical life... this is often formally called religion.
Man’s ethics and (behavioural) code enable him to discern right from wrong,
good from bad that guides him to make ideal decisions and, therefore, develop
and progress. Man’s soul, therefore, no matter how immaterial, plays a
significant role in his adaptation.
Just
my little thoughts…
References:
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