Man and beast
one
the story
In the Genesis story, God makes Adam before He makes Eve. In fact, He allows Adam to experience loneliness, so that Adam can realize that “it is not good for man to be alone.” But before God introduces human friendship and human love into the world, He puts Adam through an interesting exercise.
He brings all the animals to Adam, and Adam names them. And, in the process, Adam discovers (surprise, surprise), that none of the beasts will be a suitable companion for him. And only after Adam completes this process does God present Eve.
Why? What is the lesson Adam needs to learn as he names the animals? What does he need to understand before he can properly relate to another human being, to a woman, to his wife?
two
We are more unlike the animals than like them.
Adam is superficially very similar to the other animals. He is a mammal, a warm-blooded creature with hair and a need for food and sleep. At first he might think he’s just another animal. But he isn’t. This is what he has to learn – that he is more unlike the other animals than like them. And he learns this by giving them names which express their essence. Animals don’t do this. Animals may have the capacity to signal to each other, and develop different responses to different signals – the animals do not talk. They do not develop words that express the essences of things. That’s why there are no animal philosophers, no animal ethicists, no animal poets, no animal storytellers. Because these things require a language that can express the essences of things. But essences are immaterial – so you need an immaterial soul to perceive them. And only man has such a soul.
That’s why Adam names the animals, and the animals do not name him. Because they belong to two completely different orders. And Adam needs to know that before he deals with other people.
three
We cannot treat animals and people the same way
Whenever people try to commit injustice against a certain demographic, they do it by comparing that demographic to animals. American slaveholders described their slaves as livestock. The Nazis talked about the Jews as vermin and swine. And pro-abortionists call unborn children parasites. What’s the point? The point is that treating others justly demands a sharp distinction between people and animals. We cannot treat people like animals. And, by extension, we cannot treat animals like people. The Catechism, in paragraph #2418, says that it is not right to spend money on animals that should be prioritized in relieving human suffering. Nor should one give animals “the affection due only to persons.”
You must not, must not, blur the lines between animals and humans. You can’t act as though people are only their bodily component. People have reason; people have freedom; people have an immortal soul. You must treat them accordingly.
four
Human sexuality is not like animal sexuality
When we explain where babies come from to children, we often give them the “birds and the bees” talk. The problem with that phrase is that it might suggest that what we do when we come together as man and woman is like what the animals do. But it isn’t. Adam had to learn that he was more unlike the beasts than like the beasts. And he had to learn that before he met his wife.
We are not made in the image of the birds of the air or the beasts of the field. We are made in the image of God. How we live out our sexuality must be modelled not on the mating patterns of the lower animals, but on the divine love of the Trinity. Until we understand the love of God, and how our bodies were made to be images and expressions of that love, we are unfit to pursue another person romantically.
What counts as “natural” for human sexuality is not determined by what the birds and the bees do. What is natural for our love is whether it conforms to the way God loves and the way God has loved us in Jesus Christ. Only then will our romances, and our marriages, be really human.
five
How Animals Live – How Children of God must Live
The story of Adam naming the animals isn’t some cute mythical anecdote. It’s the expression of one of the most basic of all moral principles. We are not animals and we can’t live like animals. Animals tend to promiscuity, to violence, to domination. Many animals, especially male animals, seek to maximize their mating partners, try to intimidate their rivals, mark their territories and fight off any threats. And there are people who live like this. Who live by competition, domination, career-building, sexual conquest.
This is what they think counts as a successful life. And actually, it’s the epitome of a failed human life. It’s a warped, bestial, brutish life. Children of God – human beings who live according to their design – they live seeking truth and goodness and beauty. They live by courageous self-sacrifice. They lay down their lives for their spouses and their kids, and then go on to help their neighbors in need. These people celebrate the goodness of God instead of trying to maximize their pleasure and property on earth.
This is how Adam is called to live; it’s how Eve is called to live. It’s what it means to be a son and a daughter of God.