God and Non-Human Living Beings

By Precilla

There are several million species other than human beings that presently live on Planet Earth. From a theological point of view, what status do these species enjoy? Are non-human species lesser beings, lower in status in God’s eyes than human beings? Does God care less for non-human species than for human beings? Are non-human species also made in the image and form of God, as human beings are said to be? Do non-human species also have a soul, a spark of the Divine, that human beings claim to possess? Can non-human species also ‘realize God’ or ‘Go to Heaven’ or ‘enter Paradise’, as is said of human beings? 

These are some questions that various theologies humans have devised seek to provide answers to, in the form of widely divergent truth-claims.

Since theological truth-claims of this sort cannot be empirically proven, and nor disproven, one cannot know for sure which, if any, of the answers provided by these many different theologies to the questions mentioned above are truly true. Be that as it may, this ought not to stop us from seeking to develop understandings related to these questions that are reasonable and that also take into account the best interests of the many non-human species that human beings share Planet Earth with.

In this regard, here is a tentative theory that appeals to me on grounds of reason as well as justice and equity:

The Divine has manifested Itself in the form of the entire Universe and all that it contains, both things and living beings. This means that all non-human species of living beings are a manifestation of The Divine in exactly the same way as human beings are.

The Divine is equally present everywhere, including in every living being that It manifests in and as. This means that The Divine is equally present in all non-human living beings as it is in all human beings. In other words, non-human living beings, being as Divine as human beings, have exactly the same ontological status as human beings, all of them being only different manifestations of the same Divine Being or Power. This being the case, there is no question whatsoever of non-human beings being lesser than, or inferior to, human beings, of God caring less for non-human beings than for human beings, or of non-human species not being made in the image and form of God, as human beings are said to be.

As for what happens after their physical death, according to this tentative theory, non-human living beings meet exactly the same fate as human beings. Since non-human beings are actually manifestations of The Divine, just as human beings are, there is no question of them going anywhere (being reborn in some other form or of going to Heaven/Paradise or Hell) after they meet with physical death, because The Divine does not actually die and go anywhere thereafter. All that happens is that when the span of time is over for which The Divine had chosen to manifest itself as a particular living being (human or non-human), the components of the physical body in which It had so manifested Itself returns to Earth, from whence these components came. The Divine that had manifested in and through the physical body of that erstwhile being does not ‘go’ anywhere thereafter since It is already everywhere, being omnipresent.

                                                                   *

If this tentative theory is true, then all animals, birds, insects, fish, plants, trees and all the other living beings that there may be are equal manifestations of The Divine and hence deserving of equal respect and consideration.