I've read theories that say that the lesser the organism, the more likely it is that a single soul controls a group of those organisms. One soul controls one or two people, or ten or twenty cats, but can control a billion mosquitoes. It's a matter of the amount of attention required to run that organism. If most of the behavior is hardwired (so to speak) then it doesn't take much attention to run that creature- so they get to run large numbers of them.Cerin wrote:To those who speak of souls, does that go just for mammals? Fish and insects? Are you suggesting that mosquitoes have souls? Mice? Amoeba?
I don't believe that human and insect life are of equal value- but I don't unnecessarily destroy insect life, either. If a blood sucking insect is attacking me, I will kill it if no other means of dissuasion works, exactly like my body does with invading bacteria or viruses automatically. I kill them without thinking about it, and have almost the same reaction to mosquitos and ticks. If the group soul theory is right, then you aren't killing all the entities that THAT soul is controlling, anyway.Cerin wrote:To those of you who believe human life and insect life are of equal value, do you swat mosquitoes? What is the justification? Do you swat your neighbors to death when they annoy you? Why not?
Last summer, I needed to move a pile of old boards and tires from where they were, and my husband couldn't help because wasps were living in them. (He's deathly allergic!) He wanted to go get some wasp killer spray and kill them all, but I told him it wasn't necessary. I moved those tires one by one, and as the wasps buzzed around me, I strongly envisioned them flying off and making new homes elsewhere. I didn't hurt them, they didn't hurt me, even though I was destroying their homes. I didn't try to explain what I was doing or apologize or anything... I just pictured them flying off and they did. Insects are very suggestible. There was no need to kill them.
Just yesterday I saw a roach in my bathroom while I was using the toilet. I watched it for a while, remembering how I used to smash them with my shoe... and for a while it was within my reach and I almost did it... but- instead- I pictured it going out the bathroom door and on out the exterior door and finding a home outside. I didn't see where it went after it went out under the bathroom door- but it did get the first part of the suggestion right and I haven't seen it again.
Anywhere there is life, there is a soul behind it, whether it be animal, vegetable or single celled organism. I am biased towards humans because I am one- but that doesn't mean I don't recognize what is behind the myriad faces of life around me. They all have that spark in them- and it's just our bad luck to be in a game that requires death to live.